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This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows an unnamed crater in Arabia Terra on Mars appearing to be the source of the channel that runs to the top of the frame. This channel/crater combination is part of a much larger channel system in Arabia Terra. | Context image for PIA10866Arabia TerraThis unnamed crater in Arabia Terra appears to be the source of the channel that runs to the top of the frame. This channel/crater combination is part of a much larger channel system in Arabia Terra.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 40.5N, Longitude 11.7E. 19 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took images combined into this vertical half-circle view of Mars' Meridiani Planum region includes dark-toned sand ripples and small exposures of lighter-toned bedrock during March 5, 2009. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this 180-degree view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,798th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's surface mission (Feb. 13, 2009). North is on top. This view is presented as a vertical projection with geometric seam correction. The rover had driven 111 meters (364 feet) southward on the preceding sol. Tracks from that drive recede northward in this view. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). The terrain in this portion of Mars' Meridiani Planum region includes dark-toned sand ripples and lighter-toned bedrock. | |
CRISM's Global Mapping of Mars, Part 1 | After a year in Mars orbit, CRISM has taken enough images to allow the team to release the first parts of a global spectral map of Mars to the Planetary Data System (PDS), NASA's digital library of planetary data.CRISM's global mapping is called the "multispectral survey." The team uses the word "survey" because a reason for gathering this data set is to search for new sites for targeted observations, high-resolution views of the surface at 18 meters per pixel in 544 colors. Another reason for the multispectral survey is to provide contextual information. Targeted observations have such a large data volume (about 200 megabytes apiece) that only about 1% of Mars can be imaged at CRISM's highest resolution. The multispectral survey is a lower data volume type of observation that fills in the gaps between targeted observations, allowing scientists to better understand their geologic context.The global map is built from tens of thousands of image strips each about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide and thousands of kilometers long. During the multispectral survey, CRISM returns data from only 72 carefully selected wavelengths that cover absorptions indicative of the mineral groups that CRISM is looking for on Mars. Data volume is further decreased by binning image pixels inside the instrument to a scale of about 200 meters (660 feet) per pixel. The total reduction in data volume per square kilometer is a factor of 700, making the multispectral survey manageable to acquire and transmit to Earth. Once on the ground, the strips of data are mosaicked into maps. The multispectral survey is too large to show the whole planet in a single map, so the map is divided into 1,964 "tiles," each about 300 kilometers (186 miles) across. There are three versions of each tile, processed to progressively greater levels to strip away the obscuring effects of the dusty atmosphere and to highlight mineral variations in surface materials. This is the first version of tile 750, one of 209 tiles just delivered to the PDS. It shows a part of the planet called Tyrrhena Terra in the ancient, heavily cratered highlands. The colored strips are CRISM multispectral survey data acquired over several months, in which each pixel has a calibrated 72-color spectrum of Mars. The three wavelengths shown are 2.53, 1.50, and 1.08 micrometers in the red, green, and blue image planes respectively. At these wavelengths, rocky areas appear brown, dusty areas appear tan, and regions with hazy atmosphere appear bluish. Note that there is a large difference in brightness between strips, because there is no correction for the lighting conditions at the time of each observation. The gray areas between the strips are from an earlier mosaic of the planet taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument on Mars Odyssey, and are included only for context. Ultimately the multispectral survey will cover nearly all of this area.CRISM is one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Science Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter. | |
Tetl' Rock | This image, taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during the rover's trek through the "Columbia Hills" at "Gusev Crater," shows the horizontally layered rock dubbed "Tetl." Scientists hope to investigate this rock in more detail, aiming to determine whether the rock's layering is volcanic or sedimentary in origin. If for some reason this particular rock is not favorably positioned for grinding and examination by the toolbox of instruments on the rover's robotic arm, Spirit will be within short reach of another similar rock, dubbed "Coba." Spirit took this image on its 264th martian day, or sol (Sept. 29, 2004). This is a false-color composite image generated from the panoramic camera's 750-, 530-, and 430-nanometer filters. | |
This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. | This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock. The test took place on Aug. 19, 2012.In the composite, the fist-sized rock, called "Coronation," is highlighted. Coronation is the first rock on any extraterrestrial planet to be investigated with such a laser test. The widest context view in this composite comes from Curiosity's Navigation Camera. The magnified views in the insets come from ChemCam's camera, the Remote Micro-Imager. The area shown in the circular inset is 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) in diameter. It was taken before the rock was hit with the laser. The area covered in the further-magnified square inset is 8 millimeters (about one-third of an inch) across. It combines information from images taken before and after the test, subtracting the "before" image from the "after" image to make the changes in the rock visible.Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) inaugurated use of its laser when it used the beam to investigate Coronation during Curiosity's 13th day after landing. ChemCam hit Coronation with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. The energy from the laser excited atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam also caught the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzed it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target. This initial use of the laser on Mars served as target practice for characterizing the instrument but may provide additional value. Researchers will check whether the composition changed as the pulses progressed. If it did change, that could indicate dust or other surface material being penetrated to reveal different composition beneath the surface.ChemCam was developed, built and tested by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by France's national space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and research agency, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project, including Curiosity, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows | 19 February 2004 Yardangs are wind erosion features shaped somewhat like inverted boat hulls. Yardangs are common on Mars, as wind is the most erosive agent acting today on this desert planet. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an example located in the vicinity of the Gordii Dorsum near 4.2°S, 159.9°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. | |
The THEMIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Martin Crater. | Context imageThe THEMIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Martin Crater. The dark blue is probably basaltic sand.Orbit Number: 34934 Latitude: -21.6455 Longitude: 290.628 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2009-10-29 18:00Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows mesas in northeastern Arabia Terra. This heavily-cratered region of Mars has been severely eroded, although very little evidence regarding the erosive processes has been preserved. | 23 October 2005This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows mesas in northeastern Arabia Terra. This heavily-cratered region of Mars has been severely eroded, although very little evidence regarding the erosive processes has been preserved.Location near: 26.9°N, 293.5°W Image width: width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: lower left Season: Northern Autumn | |
This self-portrait of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a site called 'Perseverance Valley' on the slopes of Endeavour Crater. It was taken with the rover's Microscopic Imager to celebrate the 5000th Martian Day, or sol. | This self-portrait of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a site called "Perseverance Valley" on the slopes of Endeavour Crater. It was taken with the rover's Microscopic Imager to celebrate the 5000th Martian Day, or sol, of the rover's mission.The Microscopic Imager is a fixed-focus camera mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Because it was designed for close inspection of rocks, soils and other targets at a distance of around 2.7 inches (7 cm), the rover is out of focus.The rover's self-portrait view is made by stitching together multiple images take on Sol 5,000 and 5,006 of the mission. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed the Microscopic Imager to acquire the mosaic's component images. The resulting mosaic does not include the rover's arm.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. | |
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observes a small impact has occurred on the sloping wall of a larger crater and is well-preserved. Dark, blocky ejecta from the smaller crater has flowed downhill (to the west) toward the floor of the larger crater | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionIt's not that common to see craters on steep hills, partly because rocks falling downhill can quickly erase such craters. Here, however, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observes a small impact has occurred on the sloping wall of a larger crater and is well-preserved.Dark, blocky ejecta from the smaller crater has flowed downhill (to the west) toward the floor of the larger crater. Understanding the emplacement of such ejecta on steep hills is an area of ongoing research.The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 24.8 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 49.6 centimeters (19.5 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows | 17 February 2004 Around 19:03 UTC on 15 February 2004, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft flew almost directly over the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity, landing site. The MGS Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) team decided, therefore, to take MOC's third picture of the lander. Unlike the previous two images, this attempt did not require rolling the spacecraft to hit the target. The image shows the location of the lander in its small impact crater; it also shows the locations of the parachute/backshell and the area disturbed by landing rockets and the first bounce. The heat shield impact site was too far east for the camera to view. The Opportunity landing site is near 2.0°S, 5.6°W in Meridiani Planum. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. The 150 meter scale bar is about 164 yards long. The image is not map-projected; north is toward the top/upper right. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired this image on Dec. 24, 1997 of a small portion of the potential Mars Surveyor '98 landing zone. | On 12/24/1997 at shortly after 08:17 UTC SCET, the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took this high resolution image of a small portion of the potential Mars Surveyor '98 landing zone. For the purposes of planning MOC observations, this zone was defined as 75 +/- 2 degrees S latitude, 215 +/- 15 degrees W longitude. The image ran along the western perimeter of the Mars98 landing zone (e.g., near 245°W longitude). At that longitude, the layered deposits are farther south than at the prime landing longitude. The images were shifted in latitude to fall onto the layered deposits. The location of the image was selected to try to cover a range of possible surface morphologies, reliefs, and albedos.This image is approximately 81.5 km long by 31 km wide. It covers an area of about 2640 sq. km. The center of the image is at 80.46°S, 243.12 degrees W. The viewing conditions are: emission angle 56.30 degrees, incidence angle 58.88 degrees, phase of 30.31 degrees, and 15.15 meters/pixel resolution. North is to the top of the image.The effects of ground fog, which obscures the surface features(left), has been minimize by filtering (right).Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an odd area of Mars' south polar region that has sets of fine, nearly parallel lines and a darker, wider set of cracks enhanced by seasonal frost. | 6 June 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows an odd area of the south polar region that has sets of fine, nearly parallel lines running from the northeast (upper right) toward southwest (lower left) and a darker, wider set of cracks with a major trend running almost perpendicular to the finer lines. The appearance of these features is enhanced by seasonal frost. Dark areas have no frost, bright areas still have frozen carbon dioxide ice. In summer, the ice would be gone and the cracks and lines less obvious when viewed from orbit. Although unknown, wind might be responsible for forming the fine set of lines, and perhaps freeze-thaw cycles of ground ice or structural deformation would have contributed to formation of the wider cracks. The image is located near 85.0°S, 324.0°W, and covers an area about 1.5 km (nearly 1 mi) across. The scene is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left. | |
In this image, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft spies what looks like a momma holding a baby. | Context image Do you see what I see? Is that a momma holding a baby?Orbit Number: 51251 Latitude: -5.73294 Longitude: 210.403 Instrument: IR Captured: 2013-07-03 22:58Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This is a 'geometrically improved, color enhanced' version of the 360-degree panorama heretofore known as the 'Gallery Pan,' the first contiguous, uniform panorama taken by NASA's Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP). Sol 1 began on July 4, 1997. | This is a "geometrically improved, color enhanced" version of the 360-degree panorama heretofore known as the "Gallery Pan," the first contiguous, uniform panorama taken by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) over the course of Sols 8, 9, and 10. Different regions were imaged at different times over the three Martian days to acquire consistent lighting and shadow conditions for all areas of the panorama.The IMP is a stereo imaging system that, in its fully deployed configuration, stands 1.8 meters above the Martian surface, and has a resolution of two millimeters at a range of two meters. In this geometrically improved version of the panorama, distortion due to a 2.5 degree tilt in the IMP camera mast has been removed, effectively flattening the horizon.The IMP has color capability provided by 24 selectable filters -- twelve filters per "eye." Its red, green, and blue filters were used to take this image. The color was digitally balanced according to the color transmittance capability of a high-resolution TV at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and is dependent on that device. In this color enhanced version of the panorama, detail in surface features are brought out via changes to saturation and intensity, holding the original hue constant. A threshold was applied to avoid changes to the sky.At left is a Lander petal and a metallic mast which is a portion of the low-gain antenna. Misregistration in the antenna and other Lander features is due to parallax in the extreme foreground. On the horizon the double "Twin Peaks" are visible, about 1-2 kilometers away. The rock "Couch" is the dark, curved rock at right of "Twin Peaks." Another Lander petal is at left-center, showing the fully deployed forward ramp at far left, and rear ramp at right, which rover Sojourner used to descend to the surface of Mars on July 5. Immediately to the left of the rear ramp is the rock "Barnacle Bill," which scientists found to be andesitic, possibly indicating that it is a volcanic rock (a true andesite) or a physical mixture of particles. Just beyond Barnacle Bill, rover tracks lead to Sojourner, shown using its Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument to study the large rock "Yogi." Yogi, low in quartz content, appears to be more primitive than Barnacle Bill, and appears more like the common basalts found on Earth.The tracks and circular pattern in the soil leading up to Yogi were part of Sojourner's soil mechanics experiments, in which varying amounts of pressure were applied to the wheels in order to determine physical properties of the soil. During its traverse to Yogi the rover stirred the soil and exposed material from several centimeters in depth. During one of the turns to deploy Sojourner's Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the wheels dug particularly deeply and exposed white material. Spectra of this white material show it is virtually identical to the rock "Scooby Doo," and such white material may underlie much of the site. Deflated airbags are visible at the perimeter of all three Lander petals.Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The IMP was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator.
Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. | |
The small channel in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is located on the floor of Newton Crater. | Context imageThe small channel in today's VIS image is located on the floor of Newton Crater.Orbit Number: 49428 Latitude: -42.7553 Longitude: 201.606 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-02-03 22:04Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
An Outcrop with a View | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit created this 360-degree view of the rolling martian terrain at "Columbia Hills" on sol 204 (July 30, 2004), after traveling more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) across the plains of the 165-kilometer-wide (103-mile-wide) Gusev Crater. This mosaic was created from images taken by Spirit's navigation camera. The view is presented in a cylindrical projection with geometrical seam correction. | |
This 3-D cylindrical-perspective mosaic was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured on on sol 108. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image. | This three-dimensional anaglyph stereo view was created from navigation camera frames that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity acquired at about 4:05 p.m., local solar time on Mars, on sol 108, May 13, 2004. It is presented in a cylindrical-perspective projection. Opportunity is sitting along the rim of "Endurance Crater." NASA has not yet determined whether Opportunity will venture inside the crater, which is about 130 meters (about 430 feet) in diameter.See PIA05962 for left eye view and PIA05963 for right eye view of this 3-D cylindrical-perspective projection. | |
This graphic from NASA's Curiosity mission shows close-ups of light-toned veins in rocks in the 'Yellowknife Bay' area of Mars together with analyses of their composition. | Figure 1Figure 2Click on an individual image for larger viewsThis graphic from NASA's Curiosity mission shows close-ups of light-toned veins in rocks in the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Mars together with analyses of their composition. The top part of the image shows a close-up of the rock named "Crest," taken by the remote micro-imager (RMI) on Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument above the analysis of the elements detected by using ChemCam's laser to zap the target. The spectral profile of Crest's light-colored vein is shown in red, while that of a basaltic calibration target of known composition is shown in black.The bottom part of the image shows ChemCam's close-up of the rock named "Rapitan" with the analysis of its elemental composition. The spectral profile of Rapitan's light-colored vein is shown in blue, while that of a basaltic calibration target of known composition is shown in black. These results suggest the veins are unlike typical basaltic material. They are depleted in silica and composed of a calcium-bearing mineral. The ChemCam instrument took the RMI pictures and zapped lasers on Crest on Dec. 13, 2012, or the 125th sol, or Martian day, of operations. The ChemCam instrument took the RMI pictures and zapped lasers on Rapitan on Dec. 23, 2012, or the 135th sol, or Martian day, of operations. | |
Wind action in the Medusae Fossae region is creating yardangs in the easily eroded material on Mars as seen by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context image for PIA08705YardangsWind action in the Medusae Fossae region is creating yardangs in the easily eroded material.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -10.2N, Longitude 182.6E. 18 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
Northern Terra Sabea is dissected by numerous fractures and channels as shown by this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey. | Context imageNorthern Terra Sabea is dissected by numerous fractures and channels.Orbit Number: 36576 Latitude: 32.6427 Longitude: 65.6678 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-03-14 00:18Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
Spirit Self-Portrait, Sols 329-330 | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its panoramic camera to take the images combined into this mosaic view of the rover. The downward-looking view omits the mast on which the camera is mounted. It shows dust accumulation on Spirit's solar panels. The images were taken through the camera's 600-, 530- and 480-nanometer filters during Spirit's 329th and 330th martian days, or sols (Dec. 7 and 8, 2004). | |
The fractures in this image are part of a large system of fractures called Cerberus Fossae. Athabasca Valles is visible in the lower right corner of the image as seen by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context imageThe fractures in this VIS image are part of a large system of fractures called Cerberus Fossae. Athabasca Valles is visible in the lower right corner of the image.Orbit Number: 53141 Latitude: 19.8044 Longitude: 61.0929 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-12-06 13:16Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the Syrtis Major face of Mars in mid-March 2005. | 15 March 2005 This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 176° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 176° occurs in mid-March 2005. The picture shows the Syrtis Major face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.Season: Northern Summer | |
This image taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows soil sprinkled from the lander's Robot Arm scoop onto a silicone substrate. The substrate was then rotated in front of the microscope. | Click on image for larger version of Figure 1This image taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows soil sprinkled from the lander's Robot Arm scoop onto a silicone substrate. The substrate was then rotated in front of the microscope. This is the first sample collected and delivered for instrumental analysis onboard a planetary lander since NASA's Viking Mars missions of the 1970s. It is also the highest resolution image yet seen of Martian soil.The image is dominated by fine particles close to the resolution of the microscope. These particles have formed clumps, which may be a smaller scale version of what has been observed by Phoenix during digging of the surface material.The microscope took this image during Phoenix's Sol 17 (June 11), or the 17th Martian day after landing. The scale bar is 1 millimeter (0.04 inch). Zooming in on the Martian SoilIn figure 1, three zoomed-in portions are shown with an image of Martian soil particles taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.The left zoom box shows a composite particle. The top of the particle has a green tinge, possibly indicating olivine. The bottom of the particle has been reimaged at a different focus position in black and white (middle zoom box), showing that this is a clump of finer particles.The right zoom box shows a rounded, glassy particle, similar to those which have also been seen in an earlier sample of airfall dust collected on a surface exposed during landing.The shadows at the bottom of image are of the beams of the Atomic Force Microscope. The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA_x0092_s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the banded southeastern floor of the giant impact basin, Hellas. Hellas Planitia is a large and varied region on Mars. | 16 June 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the banded southeastern floor of the giant impact basin, Hellas. Hellas Planitia is a large and varied region. In southeastern Hellas, banded terrain is fairly common. The pattern probably results from erosion of layered sediment that was subsequently covered by a mantling material. This mantling material later was eroded and roughened the terrain somewhat. This image is located near 41.1°S, 275.6°W. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across; sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. | |
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. | Figure 1NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. A secondary image (Figure 1) is an anaglyph for use with red-blue 3D glasses.The mosaic is not white balanced but is instead displayed in a preliminary calibrated version of a natural color composite, approximately simulating the colors of the scene that we would see if we were there viewing it ourselves.Arizona State University in Tempe leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance go to: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ or nasa.gov/perseverance. | |
Radar View of Layering near Mars' South Pole, Orbit 1360 | A radargram from the Shallow Subsurface Radar instrument (SHARAD) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals detailed structure in the polar layered deposits of Mars' south pole. The horizontal scale of the radargram is distance along the orbiter's ground track, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) from about 74 degrees south latitude on the left to about 85 degrees south latitude at right. The vertical scale is time delay of radar signals reflected back to the spacecraft from the surface and subsurface. For reference, the white double-headed arrow indicates a distance of about 800 meters (2,600 feet) between one of the strongest subsurface reflectors and ground level, based on an assumed velocity of the radar waves in the subsurface. This reflector marks the base of the polar layered deposits. The color scale varies from black for weak reflections to white for strong reflections.The sounding radar collected the data presented here during orbit 1360 of the mission, on Nov. 10, 2006.The Shallow Subsurface Radar was provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Its operations are led by the University of Rome and its data are analyzed by a joint U.S.-Italian science team. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This 3-D cylindrical-perspective mosaic was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured on on sol 101. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image. | This 3-D cylindrical-perspective mosaic was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired on sol 101 (April 15, 2004). It reveals Spirit's view just before a stopping-point dubbed "Missoula Crater." The rover is on its way to the "Columbia Hills."See PIA05778 for left eye view and PIA05779 for right eye view of this left eye cylindrical-perspective mosaic. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the central pit feature of an approximately 20-km diameter complex crater in located just north of the Valles Marineris. A partial ring of light-toned, massive and fractured bedrock is observed. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis HiRISE image shows the central pit feature of an approximately 20-kilometer diameter complex crater in located at 304.480 degrees east, -11.860 degrees south, just north of the Valles Marineris.Here we can observe a partial ring of light-toned, massive and fractured bedrock, which has been exposed by the impact-forming event, and via subsequent erosion that typically obscure the bedrock of complex central features. Features such as this one are of particular interest as they provide scientists with numerous exposures of bedrock that can be readily observed from orbit and originate from the deep Martian subsurface.Unlike on Earth, plate tectonics do not appear to be active on Mars. Thus, much of the Martian subsurface is not directly observable through uplift, erosion and exposure of mountain chains, which provide the majority of bedrock exposures on Earth. Exposures of subsurface materials generated by these features provides us with some of the only "windows" into the subsurface geology. This makes the study of impact craters an invaluable source of information when trying to understand, not only the impact process, but also the composition and history of Mars.Although much of what we see here is composed of massive and fractured bedrock, there are zones of rock fragmentation, called "brecciation." These fragmented rocks (a.k.a., breccias) are best viewed in the eastern portion of the central pit, which was captured in a previous HiRISE image. Additionally, we see some occurrences of impact melt-bearing deposits that surround and coat the bedrock exposed within the central pit. Several dunes are on the surface throughout the central pit and surrounding crater floor.The mechanisms behind the formation of central features, particularly central pits, are not completely understood. Geologic mapping of these circumferential "mega" blocks of bedrock indicate radial and concentric fracturing that is consistent with deformation through uplift. The exposed bedrock shows well-expressed lineament features that are likely fractures and faults formed during the uplift process. Studies of the bedrock, and such structures in this image, allows us better to understand the formative events and physical processes responsible for their formation. Current research suggests that their formation is the result of some component of uplift followed by collapse.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows windstreaks located of Arsia Mons lava flows in the Daedalia Planum region. | Context image for PIA09298WindstreakThe windstreaks in this image are located of Arsia Mons lava flows in the Daedalia Planum region.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -12.0N, Longitude 223.8E. 18 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an impact crater in Chryse Planitia resemblling a bug-eyed head. Two odd depressions at the north end of the crater (the 'eyes') may have formed by wind or water erosion. | 26 January 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an impact crater in Chryse Planitia, not too far from the Viking 1 lander site, that to seems to resemble a bug-eyed head. The two odd depressions at the north end of the crater (the "eyes") may have formed by wind or water erosion. This region has been modified by both processes, with water action occurring in the distant past via floods that poured across western Chryse Planitia from Maja Valles, and wind action common occurrence in more recent history. This crater is located near 22.5°N, 47.9°W. The 150 meter scale bar is about 164 yards long. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower left. | |
Complex floor deposits within Western Ganges Chasma, Valles Marineris are evident in this image taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. | This image shows the area near the canyon wall, where large blocks of the upland surface have slumped down into the canyon. Close inspection of this image shows numerous small dark dots that are in fact individual rocks on the surface of Mars. These rocks vary from the size of a small automobile to the size of a house, have fallen down steep slopes.Launched on November 7, 1996, Mars Global Surveyor entered Mars orbit on Thursday, September 11, 1997. The original mission plan called for using friction with the planet's atmosphere to reduce the orbital energy, leading to a two-year mapping mission from close, circular orbit (beginning in March 1998). Owing to difficulties with one of the two solar panels, aerobraking was suspended in mid-October and resumed in November 8. Many of the original objectives of the mission, and in particular those of the camera, are likely to be accomplished as the mission progresses.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
This image of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover was taken at an altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters) by the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023. | This image of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover – visible at the top, right of center – was taken by the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023, 872nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. At the time the image was taken, the helicopter was at an altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters).NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which manages the project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity's development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System. | |
NASA is considering Eberswalde crater as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission; the spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2012. | Note: NASA is considering Eberswalde crater as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. As a clay-bearing site where a river once flowed into a lake, Eberswalde crater offers a chance to use knowledge that oil industry geologists have accumulated about where in a delta to look for any concentrations of carbon chemistry, a crucial ingredient for life. The spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2012.
Figure 1: White boxes indicatelocation high resolution viewsFigure 2: Context in THEMIS IRmosaic of Eberswalde Crater;North is DownFigure 3: Sub-meter-per-pixel cPROTOimage S01-00795Figure 4: Context View of PIA04293 Figure 5: Inverted channelsScientifically, perhaps the most important result from use of the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor during that spacecraft's extended mission has been the discovery and documentation of a fossil delta. The feature is located in a crater northeast of Holden Crater, near 24.0 degrees south latitude, 33.7 degrees west longitude. Since the announcement of the discovery of the delta in November 2003, the International Astronomical Union has provided a provisional name (pending final approval) for the crater in which the landforms occur. The crater has been named Eberswalde, for a town in Germany. This image offers a higher-resolution view of a portion of the fossil delta than any seen earlier. North is up. At the bottom of the frame, the image includes the north end of a looping, inverted, meandering channel. The image covers an area of about 3 by 3 kilometers (1.9 x 1.9 miles). It was produced using a technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," in which the rotation rate of the spacecraft is adjusted to match the ground speed under the camera. At full resolution, this map-projected image is at 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel. Additional images from Mars Orbiter Camera provide some context (figure 4) and show a nearby portion of the fossil delta's inverted channels (figure 5) at a spatial scale of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) per pixel. The relative positions of these three images are indicated in a mosaic image of the entire delta (figure 1), for which the unmarked version was released in November 2003 (PIA04869). The first Mars Orbiter Camera narrow angle images of some of the landforms in the delta were acquired in 2000, during the Mars Global Surveyor primary mission, but those pictures did not show very well the unambiguous inverted channel forms. Not until the second Earth year of the orbiter's extended mission were the deltaic features recognized in Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in March and June of 2002. Following the initial observations in 2002, the Mars Orbiter Camera team began a systematic effort to map the entire Eberswalde Crater delta. Most of this imaging required slewing the whole spacecraft in a technique called "roll only targeted observation" so that it pointed the camera toward the feature. In this way, the camera team was able to build up a mosaic of the delta much more quickly than would have been the case if the team had simply relied upon chance crossing of the delta by the orbiter's usual ground track. This technique was not employed during Mars Global Surveyor's primary mission, except in the search for Mars Polar Lander, but became a routine part of the tool kit during the extended mission. Even with the "roll only targeted observation" technique, it took more than one Earth year to build up a complete mosaic of images of the delta. In the meantime, the first data showing the deltaic landforms were archived and released to the public and scientific community, long before the Mars Orbiter Camera team's analysis and mosaic were complete. Some scientists began independent analyses of the landform at that time. The initial analysis and announcement of the feature was finally published in November 2003. The Eberswalde delta provides the first clear, "smoking gun" evidence that some valleys on Mars experienced persistent flow of a liquid with the physical properties of water over an extended period of time, as do rivers on Earth. In addition, because the delta today is lithified -- that is, hardened to form rock -- it provided the first unambiguous evidence that some martian sedimentary rocks were deposited in a liquid (presumably, water) environment. The presence of meandering channels, a cut-off meander, and crisscrossing channels at different elevations (one above the other), provided the clear geologic evidence for these interpretations. After the sediments were deposited to form the delta, the material was further buried by other materials -- probably sediments -- that are no longer present. The entire package of buried material became cemented and hardened to form rock. Later, erosive processes such as wind stripped away the overlying rock, re-exposing the delta. Now preserved essentially as a fossil, the former floors of channels in the delta became inverted, to form ridges, by erosion. Channels can be inverted by erosion on both Earth and Mars. Usually this happens when the channel floor, or the material filling the channel, is harder to erode than the surrounding material into which the channel was cut. In some cases, the channels on Earth and Mars have been filled by lava to make them more resistant to erosion. In the case of Eberswalde, there are no lava flows; instead, the channel floors may have been rendered resistant to erosion either by being better-cemented than the surrounding material, or composed of coarser-grained sediment (such as sand and gravel as opposed to silt), or both. The Mars Orbiter Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Mars Global Surveyor left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Mars Global Surveyor for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
Sedimentary layers at Franklin Cliffs are displayed in a mosaic captured by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover using its Mastcam-Z camera on Feb. 12, 2023, the 704th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. | Figure ASedimentary layers at "Franklin Cliffs" are displayed in a mosaic captured by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover using its Mastcam-Z camera on Feb. 12, 2023, the 704th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.The mosaic is made up of three individual images that were stitched together after being sent back from Mars. This natural color view is approximately how the scene would appear to an average person if they were on Mars.Figure A is an enhanced color view that exaggerates subtle color differences in the scene.Franklin Cliffs, along with other locations like "Skrinkle Haven" and "Pinestand" may have been created as sediment built up here in an ancient river or delta. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ | |
Complex of rectilinear intersecting ridges in the south polar region. This 20 x 14 km area image (frame 7908) is centered near 81.5 degrees south, 65 degrees west, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter. | Complex of rectilinear intersecting ridges in the south polar region. This 20 x 14 km area image (frame 7908) is centered near 81.5 degrees south, 65 degrees west.Figure caption from Science Magazine. | |
This image shows soil on the doors of the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) onboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The image was taken by the lander on Oct. 7, 2008. This sample delivered to TEGA was named 'Rosy Red.' | This image shows soil on the doors of the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) onboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The image was taken by the lander's Robotic Arm Camera on the 131st Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 7, 2008). This sample delivered to TEGA was named "Rosy Red."The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows channels and Gullies in Nirgal Vallis on Mars. | Release image with labelsContext ImageThe Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has found that only two ancient martian valleys contain evidence for sustained fluid flow. The first was Nanedi Valles--this finding was announced back in February 1998 (See: Nanedi Vallis: Sustained Water Flow?). When this picture was obtained in September 1999, Nirgal Vallis joined the lonely list with Nanedi Valles. But Nirgal is different--it also contains evidence for much more recent fluid seepage from its walls!The context view on the right--a mosaic of Viking orbiter views from the U.S. Geological Survey--shows the location (white box) of the high resolution MOC view on the left. The MOC image shows two channels running through the center of Nirgal Vallis--a wide, outer channel with a narrow, leveed "inner channel" running down its center. Leveed refers to the fact that the inner channel's walls appear to be raised above the surrounding terrain, like a levee that might be used to protect property from floods on the Mississippi River. Levees can form naturally from running water or lava... it is not clear which fluid--lava or water--was involved in Nirgal Vallis.The wall of Nirgal Vallis shows something else--a much more recent "gully" with an alcove at the top of the slope, a channel, and an apron that partly covers some of the adjacent sand dunes. This gully is inferred to be much younger than the channels running down the center of Nirgal Vallis, because these channels are covered by dunes, while the gully's apron covers the dunes. This gully feature is one of many reported by MGS MOC scientists in June 2000 as being the possible result of geologically recent groundwater seepage and mud or debris flow. (See: MOC Images Suggest Recent Sources of Liquid Water on Mars).The image is located near 29.4°S, 39.1°W. North is toward the upper right and illumination is from the upper left. Aspect ratio is 1.5:1, thus the scale bar in the labeled image (middle) shows different vertical and horizontal scales. The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) by 6.5 km (4 mi) and is a subframe of M07-00752. To see what the raw MOC image data look like, visit the newest data releases (for Mission Subphases M07 - M12, covering September 1999 through February 2000) in the MOC GALLERY. | |
This false-color image captured by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on May 6, 2007, shows Cape St. Vincent, one of the many promontories that jut out from the walls of Victoria Crater, Mars. | This image captured by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows "Cape St. Vincent," one of the many promontories that jut out from the walls of Victoria Crater, Mars. The material at the top of the promontory consists of loose, jumbled rock, then a bit further down into the crater, abruptly transitions to solid bedrock. This transition point is marked by a bright band of rock, visible around the entire crater. Scientists say this bright band represents what used to be the surface of Mars just before an impact formed Victoria Crater. After Opportunity begins to descend into the crater in early July 2007, it will examine the band carefully at an accessible location with a gentle slope. These investigations might help determine if the band's brighter appearance is the result of ancient interactions with the Martian atmosphere.This image was taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera on sol 1167 (May 6, 2007). It is presented in false color to accentuate differences in surface materials. | |
The channel in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is located in Terra Sabaea. At some time after the channel was carved, the impact event occurred, forever blocking the channel. | Context imageThe channel in this image is located in Terra Sabaea. At some time after the channel was carved, the impact event occurred, forever blocking the channel.Orbit Number: 45126 Latitude: 11.8128 Longitude: 31.9808 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2012-02-15 22:36Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows linear depressions or graben called Cerberus Fossae. | Context imageThe linear depressions in the middle of this VIS image are graben called Cerberus Fossae. Graben form where extensional tectonic forces allows blocks of material to subside between paired faults. Cerberus Fossae are located in Elysium Planitia, southeast of the Elysium Mons volcanic complex.Orbit Number: 87793 Latitude: 15.3137 Longitude: 163.349 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-09-29 04:24Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This pair of images from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover illustrates how special filters are used to scout terrain ahead for variations in the local bedrock. | Figure 1Click on the image for version with scale barThis pair of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity rover illustrates how special filters are used to scout terrain ahead for variations in the local bedrock.The upper panorama is in the Mastcam's usual full color, for comparison. The lower panorama of the same scene, in false color, combines three exposures taken through different "science filters," each selecting for a narrow band of wavelengths. Filters and image processing steps were selected to make stronger signatures of hematite, an iron-oxide mineral, evident as purple. Hematite is of interest in this area of Mars -- partway up "Vera Rubin Ridge" on lower Mount Sharp -- as holding clues about ancient environmental conditions under which that mineral originated.In this pair of panoramas, the strongest indications of hematite appear related to areas where the bedrock is broken up. With information from this Mastcam reconnaissance, the rover team selected destinations in the scene for close-up investigations (see PIA22066) to gain understanding about the apparent patchiness in hematite spectral features. The Mastcam's left-eye camera took the component images of both panoramas on Sept. 12, 2017, during the 1,814th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The view spans from south-southeast on the left to south-southwest on the right. The foreground across the bottom of the scene is about 50 feet (about 15 meters) wide.Figure 1 includes scale bars of 1 meter (3.3 feet) in the middle distance and 5 meters (16 feet) at upper right.Curiosity's Mastcam combines two cameras: the right eye with a telephoto lens and the left eye with a wider-angle lens. Each camera has a filter wheel that can be rotated in front of the lens for a choice of eight different filters. One filter for each camera is clear to all visible light, for regular full-color photos, and another is specifically for viewing the Sun. Some of the other filters were selected to admit wavelengths of light that are useful for identifying iron minerals.Each of the filters used for the lower panorama shown here admits light from a narrow band of wavelengths, extending to only about 5 to 10 nanometers longer or shorter than the filter's central wavelength. The three observations combined into this product used filters centered at three near-infrared wavelengths: 751 nanometers, 867 nanometers and 1,012 nanometers. Hematite distinctively absorbs some frequencies of infrared light more than others. Usual color photographs from digital cameras -- such as the upper panorama here from Mastcam -- combine information from red, green and blue filtering. The filters are in a microscopic grid in a "Bayer" filter array situated directly over the detector behind the lens, with wider bands of wavelengths. The colors of the upper panorama, as with most featured images from Mastcam, have been tuned with a color adjustment similar to white balancing for approximating how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows small gullies on the north wall of a crater within the much larger Green Crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. The gullies might have formed by seepage and runoff of ground water. | 18 June 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a series of small gullies on the north wall of a crater within the much larger Green Crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. The gullies might have formed by seepage and runoff of ground water; others have suggested that melting snow or ice might create such gullies. The crater floor exhibits a field of sand dunes and some wispy, dark streaks left by passing dust devils.Location near: 53.0°S, 8.0°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: upper left Season: Southern Autumn | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a portion of Huo-Hsing Vallis, located near the northern margin of Terra Sabaea. | Context imageThis VIS image shows a portion of Huo-Hsing Vallis, located near the northern margin of Terra Sabaea.Orbit Number: 61217 Latitude: 29.806 Longitude: 66.6865 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-10-02 09:34Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows defrosting south high latitude dunes on Mars. In late winter and into the spring season, dark spots commonly form on dunes and other surfaces as seasonal carbon dioxide begins to sublime away. | 12 May 2005This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows defrosting south high latitude dunes. In late winter and into the spring season, dark spots commonly form on dunes and other surfaces as seasonal carbon dioxide begins to sublime away.Location near: 59.3°S, 343.3°W Image width: ~2 km (~1.2 mi) Illumination from: upper left Season: Southern Spring | |
This evenly layered rock photographed by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover on Aug. 7, 2014, shows a pattern typical of a lake-floor sedimentary deposit not far from where flowing water entered a lake. | Figure 1Click on the image for larger versionThis evenly layered rock photographed by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover shows a pattern typical of a lake-floor sedimentary deposit not far from where flowing water entered a lake.The scene combines multiple frames taken with Mastcam's right-eye camera on Aug. 7, 2014, during the 712th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. It shows an outcrop at the edge of "Hidden Valley," seen from the valley floor. This view spans about 5 feet (1.5 meters) across in the foreground. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Figure 1 is a version with a superimposed scale bar of 50 centimeters (about 20 inches).This is an example of a thick-laminated, evenly-stratified rock type that forms stratigraphically beneath cross-bedded sandstones regarded as ancient river deposits. These rocks are interpreted to record sedimentation in a lake, as part of or in front of a delta, where plumes of river sediment settled out of the water column and onto the lake floor. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. | |
This is the first image taken by NASA's InSight lander on the surface of Mars on Nov. 26, 2018. | Annotated ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis is the first image taken by NASA's InSight lander on the surface of Mars. The instrument context camera (ICC) mounted below the lander deck obtained this image on Nov. 26, 2018, shortly after landing. The transparent lens cover was still in place to protect the lens from any dust kicked up during landing.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, Colorado built the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/insight. | |
This spectrum, taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Moessbauer spectrometer, shows the presence of an iron-bearing mineral called jarosite in the collection of rocks dubbed 'El Capitan' | This spectrum, taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Moessbauer spectrometer, shows the presence of an iron-bearing mineral called jarosite in the collection of rocks dubbed "El Capitan." "El Capitan" is located within the rock outcrop that lines the inner edge of the small crater where Opportunity landed. The pair of yellow peaks specifically indicates a jarosite phase, which contains water in the form of hydroxyl as a part of its structure. These data suggest water-driven processes exist on Mars. Three other phases are also identified in this spectrum: a magnetic phase (blue), attributed to an iron-oxide mineral; a silicate phase (green), indicative of minerals containing double-ionized iron (Fe 2+); and a third phase (red) of minerals with triple-ionized iron (Fe 3+). | |
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) on April 11, 2014, to record this scene of a butte called 'Mount Remarkable' and surrounding outcrops at a waypoint called 'the Kimberley' inside Gale Crater. | NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Navigation Camera (Navcam) to record this scene of a butte called "Mount Remarkable" and surrounding outcrops at a waypoint called "the Kimberley" inside Gale Crater. The butte stands about 16 feet (5 meters) high. Its informal name comes from a mountain and national park in Australia. The rover team plans to drive Curiosity to the flatter outcrop at the base of the Martian Mount Remarkable for a close-up inspection that might include drilling into the rock.This mosaic view combines multiple images taken during the 597th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (April 11, 2014). That same day, the rover had driven 90.2 feet (27.5 meters) and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed Curiosity at the location from which the rover captured this panorama. The resulting image from the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is online at PIA18081. A map showing Curiosity's route from the August 2012 landing site to the Kimberley is online at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6153.Curiosity's science team chose the Kimberley in 2013 as a waypoint for science investigations along the route to the mission's long-term destinations on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, in the middle of Gale Crater. This waypoint offers set of outcrops of different types of rock layers exposed close together, so that their relationship to each other can be studied. The team refers to the rock layer surrounding the base of Mount Remarkable as the "middle unit" because it is intermediate in location between rocks that form buttes in the area and lower-lying rocks that show a pattern of striations.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover and the rover's Navcam.For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a small portion of the immense lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a small portion of the immense lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three large aligned volcanoes in the Tharsis region. Arsia Mons' last eruption was 10s of million years ago. The different surface textures are created by differences in the lava viscosity and cooling rates. The lobate margins of each flow can be traced back to the start of each flow — or to the point where they are covered by younger flows. Flows in Daedalia Planum can be as long as 180 km (111 miles). For comparison the longest Hawaiian lava flow is only 51 km (˜31 miles) long. The total area of Daedalia Planum is 2.9 million square km – more than four times the size of Texas.Orbit Number: 90723 Latitude: -23.0254 Longitude: 238.572 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-05-28 10:23Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This picture taken by the IMP (Imager for Mars Pathfinder) aboard NASA's Mars Pathfinder spacecraft depicts the rover Sojourner's position after driving onto the Martian surface in 1997. | This picture taken by the IMP (Imager for Mars Pathfinder) aboard the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft depicts the rover Sojourner's position after driving onto the Martian surface. Sojourner has become the first autonomous robot ever to traverse the surface of Mars. This image reflects the success of Pathfinder's principle objective -- to place a payload on Mars in a safe, operational configuration.The primary mission of Sojourner, scheduled to last seven days, will be to use its Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument to determine the elements that make up the rocks and soil on Mars. A full study using the APXS takes approximately ten hours, and can measure all elements except hydrogen at any time of the Martian day or night. The APXS will conduct its studies by bombarding rocks and soil samples with alpha particle radiation -- charged particles equivalent to the nucleus of a helium atom, consisting of two protons and two neutrons.Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. | |
This graphic maps the first 16 sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected rock or soil samples for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the vehicle. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 14 rock-powder samples were acquired. | Photojournal Note: A newer version of this graphic can be seen at PIA23413.
This graphic maps locations of the sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected its first 18 rock or soil samples for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the vehicle. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 14 rock-powder samples were acquired. Curiosity scooped two soil samples at each of the other two sites: Rocknest and Gobabeb.The diameter of each drill hole is about 0.6 inch (1.6 centimeters), slightly smaller than a U.S. dime. The images used here are raw color, as recorded by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera. Notice the differences in color of the material at different drilling sites.For the map, north is toward upper left corner. The scale bar represents 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). The base map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.The latest sample site included is "Quela,"where Curiosity drilled into bedrock of the Murray formation on Sept. 18, 2016, during the 1,464th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity landed in August 2012 on the plain (named Aeolis Palus) near Mount Sharp (or Aeolis Mons).The drilling dates for the first 13 rock samples collected are, by location: "John Klein" on Feb. 8, 2013 (Sol 182); "Cumberland" on May 19, 2013 (Sol 279); "Windjana" on May 5, 2014 (Sol 621); "Confidence Hills" on Sept. 24, 2014 (Sol 759); "Mojave" on Jan. 29, 2015 (Sol 882); "Telegraph Peak" on Feb. 24, 2015 (Sol 908); "Buckskin" on July 30, 2015 (Sol 1060); "Big Sky" on Sept. 29, 2015 (Sol 1119); "Greenhorn" on Oct. 18, 2015 (Sol 1137); "Lubango" on April 23, 2016 (Sol 1320); "Okoruso" on May 5, 2016 (Sol 1332); "Oudam" on June 4, 2016 (Sol 1361); and "Marimba" on Aug. 6, 2106 (Sol 1422).MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Science Lab0oratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. | |
This unnamed channel is located in Arabia Terra, southwest of Meridiani Planum as seen by NASA's Mars Odyssey. | Context imageThis unnamed channel is located in Arabia Terra, southwest of Meridiani Planum.Orbit Number: 40036 Latitude: -5.64991 Longitude: 351.073 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-12-23 20:03Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam instrument to take the 126 individual images that make up this 360-degree panorama on March 3, 2021, the 3,048th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. | NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam instrument to take the 126 individual images that make up this 360-degree panorama on March 3, 2021, the 3,048th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Right of center in the upper part of the image is "Mont Mercou," a ˜20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) outcrop nicknamed after a mountain in France. Beyond the outcrop are peaks higher up Mount Sharp, the mountain Curiosity has been rolling up since 2014. Mount Sharp's summit can be seen at the top of the image, just left of center.The panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam. A division of Caltech, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages the Curiosity rover for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more information about Curiosity, visit http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl or https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of Ceti Mensa. This mesa feature is located in western Candor Chasma and is composed of layered deposits and sand dunes. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows part of Ceti Mensa. This mesa feature is located in western Candor Chasma and is composed of layered deposits and sand dunes.Orbit Number: 88887 Latitude: -5.94433 Longitude: 284.64 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-12-28 06:13Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a proposed future Mars landing site in Acidalia Planitia targets densely occurring mounds thought to be mud volcanoes. | This proposed future Mars landing site in Acidalia Planitia targets densely occurring mounds thought to be mud volcanoes.Mud volcanoes are geological structures formed when a mixture of gas, liquid and fine-grained rock (or mud) is forced to the surface from several meters to kilometers (several yards to miles) underground. Scientists are targeting these mud volcanoes because the sediments brought from depth could contain organic materials that might provide evidence about possible past and present microbial life on Mars.This image covers an area about 6 kilometers (4 miles) wide. It is one product from an Oct. 2, 2010, HiRISE observation catalogued as ESP_019612_2250, of an area centered at 44.5 degrees north latitude, 317.2 degrees east longitude. Other image products from this observation are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_019612_2250. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is located in Ravi Vallis, a channel running from the highlands of Xanthe Terra to the complex lower elevation Hydraotes Chaos. | Context imageThis VIS image is located in Ravi Vallis, a channel running from the highlands of Xanthe Terra to the complex lower elevation Hydraotes Chaos. The tear-drop shaped island near the center of the image indicates fluid flow was from the left to the right side of the image.Orbit Number: 64209 Latitude: 0.0308233 Longitude: 320.437 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2016-06-04 18:52Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows lava flows near the eastern flank of Pavonis Mons. | Context imageThis VIS image shows lava flows near the eastern flank of Pavonis Mons.Orbit Number: 59114 Latitude: 1.42017 Longitude: 250.297 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-04-12 05:34Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's InSight lander took this series of images on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, capturing the moment when Phobos, one of Mars' moons, crossed in front of the Sun and darkened the ground around the lander. | Click here for animationNASA's InSight lander took this series of images on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, capturing the moment when Phobos, one of Mars' moons, crossed in front of the Sun and darkened the ground around the lander. The images were taken by InSight's Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the lander's robotic arm.The images were taken at intervals of about 50 seconds in order to capture the eclipse, which on this day lasted 24.3 seconds. In the lower right corner of the frame, the shadow of the robotic arm can be seen moving to the right before the entire scene darkened during the moment of the eclipse.JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/insight. | |
The component images for this 360-degree panorama were taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity after the rover drove about 97 feet southeastward on April 22, 2014. The location is on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. | The component images for this 360-degree panorama were taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity after the rover drove about 97 feet (29.5 meters) during the mission's 3,642nd Martian day, or sol (April 22, 2014). The rover drove southwestward that sol, so the tracks from this end-of-drive position recede toward the northeast. For scale, the distance between the two parallel tracks is about 3.3 feet (1 meter).The position is just west of the ridgeline of the west rim of Endeavour Crater. A stereo anaglyph of this image is available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18099.JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows Ius Chasma with several landslide deposits and groups of sand dunes on Mars. | Context image for PIA09980Ius ChasmaThe major Martian dust storm of 2007 filled the sky with dust and produced conditions that prevented the THEMIS VIS camera from being able to image the surface. With no new images being acquired, we've dug into the archive to highlight some interesting areas on Mars. The this week's region is Valles Marineris. This image of Ius Chasma shows several landslide deposits and groups of sand dunes.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -14.3N, Longitude 303.7E. 17 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey released on Dec 19, 2003 shows a strange erosional pattern differing greatly from the surrounding terrain of Lycus Sulchi. | Released 19 December 2003The strange erosional pattern seen in this THEMIS visible image differs greatly from the surrounding terrain of Lycus Sulchi (see context image). The crescent-shaped erosional pits trend in the southwest-northeast direction, indicating a dominant wind direction from the southwest. Why these pits eroded in the shapes that they did, however, is a mystery.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 18.6, Longitude 214.6 East (145.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
Smooth surfaces of windblown sand and dust of the 'Rocknest' area signal an appropriate place for NASA's Curiosity to collect and use the mission's first few scoopfuls of soil. | This 360-degree scene shows the surroundings of the location where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity arrived on the 59th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 5, 2012). It is a mosaic of images taken by Curiosity's Navigation Camera (Navcam) on sols 59 and 60. Smooth surfaces of the windblown sand and dust of the "Rocknest" area, in the foreground, are what signaled from a distance that this might be an appropriate place to spend about three weeks collecting and using the mission's first few scoopfuls of soil. The rover scooped up its first sample on Sol 61 (Oct. 7, 2012).South is at the center of this panorama, north at both ends. Mount Sharp is on the horizon in the southeast. The "Glenelg" area planned as the next destination lies to the east. Tracks that Curiosity's wheels made while driving toward Rocknest recede toward the west. For scale, Curiosity leaves parallel tracks about 9 feet (2.7 meters) apart.The scene is presented here as a cylindrical projection.JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. | |
Durham, North Carolina, Students Study Martian Volcanism | This image of the wall of a graben—a depressed block of land between two parellel faults—in Tyrrhena Terra, in Mars' ancient southern highlands, was taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) at 0914 UTC (4:14 a.m. EST) on February 6, 2008, near 17.3 degrees south latitude, 95.5 degrees east longitude. CRISM's image was taken in 544 colors covering 0.36-3.92 micrometers, and shows features as small as 35 meters (115 feet) across. The region covered is just over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide at its narrowest point.This image was part of an investigation planned by students in four high schools in Durham, North Carolina. The students are working with the CRISM science team in a project called the Mars Exploration Student Data Teams (MESDT), which is part of NASA's Mars Public Engagement Program and Arizona State University's Mars Education Program. Starting with a medium-resolution map of the area, taken as part of CRISM's "multispectral survey" campaign to map Mars in 72 colors at 200 meters (660 feet) per pixel, the students identified a key rock outcrop to test their hypothesis that the irregular depression was formed by Martian volcanism. They provided the coordinates of the target to CRISM's operations team, who took a high-resolution image of the site. The Context Imager (CTX) accompanied CRISM with a 6 meter (20 feet) per pixel, high-resolution image to sharpen the relationship of spectral variations to the underlying surface structures. The Durham students worked with a mentor on the CRISM team to analyze the data, and presented their results at the 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held in League City, Texas, on March 10-14, 2008.The upper panel of the image shows the location of the CRISM data and the surrounding, larger CTX image, overlain on an image mosaic taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on Mars Odyssey. The mosaic has been color-coded for elevation using data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. Redder colors indicate higher elevations. The bottom left image shows infrared brightness of the surface measured by CRISM at 2.5, 1.5, and 1.1 micrometers. In the lower right image, the data have been transformed into a map of spectral features indicating the presence of different minerals. Redder areas have a stronger signature of the iron-containing mineral olivine, and green and blue areas show the signature of the mineral pyroxene.These data sets, acquired over the last ten years, allow increasingly detailed and higher-resolution view of Mars' surface that provide scientists with a variety of measurements to understand Mars' past evolution. The same data provide teenage amateur geologists a fascinating and exciting "field site" at which to exercise the principles of earth science in a real-life, hands-on science investigation.CRISM is one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Science Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter. | |
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft show part of the floor of an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image show part of the floor of an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra.Orbit Number: 6504 Latitude: -11.2333 Longitude: 14.399 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2003-06-02 22:31Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
A Martian sunrise was captured in this image taken by NASA's Viking 2 Lander on June 14, 1978, at the spacecraft's Utopia Planitia landing site. | A Martian sunrise was captured in this Viking 2 Lander picture taken June 14, 1978, at the spacecraft's Utopia Planitia landing site. The data composing this image were acquired just as the Sun peaked over the horizon on the Lander's 631st sol (Martian solar day). Pictures taken at dawn (or dusk) are quite dark except where the sky is brightened above the Sun's position. The glow in the sky results as light from the Sun is scattered and preferentially absorbed by tiny particles of dust and ice in the atmosphere. When the Viking cameras are calibrated for darker scenes, the "sky glow" tends to saturate their sensitivity and produce the bright regions seen here. The "banding" and color separation effects are also artifacts, rather than real features, and are introduced because the cameras are not able to record continuous gradations of light. The cameras must represent such gradations in steps (bands) of brightness and color, and the process sometimes produces some "false" colors within the bands. The scattering of light closest to the Sun's position tends to enhance blue wavelengths. The narrowing sky glow nearer the horizon above the Sun's position occurs as a result of light extinction. At that elevation, the optical path of sunlight through the atmosphere is at its longest penetration angle, and a substantial portion of the light is simply prevented from reaching the cameras by the dust, ice particles and other material in its way.NASA's Langley Research Center was the primary and extended mission manager; JPL assumed management for continued mission operations. | |
NASA's Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took this image on August 20, 1997, when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was 5.67 million kilometers (3.52 million miles) and 22 days from entering orbit. | The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took this image on August 20, 1997, when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was 5.67 million kilometers (3.52 million miles) and 22 days from entering orbit. At this distance, the MOC's resolution is about 21.2 km per picture element, and the 6800 km (4200 mile) diameter planet is about 327 pixels across. North is at the top of the image. The MGS spacecraft pointed the camera at the center of the planet (near the dark, morning sunrise line, or terminator) at 23.6° N, 82.1° W. At this distance from Mars, only bright and dark markings resulting from variations in the amount and thickness of dust and sand are visible. The large dark marking stretching from the right center northward is Acidalia Planitia, a region of rock and sand with less dust on it than the area immediately to the south, Chryse Planitia. Both Viking Lander 1 and Pathfinder landed in the latter, bright area. In this low resolution image, some of the dark features resemble the "canals" seen prominently in maps created by astronomers of the 19th and early 20th century. Mariner 9 and Viking images show that most of these dark lines are associated with sand deposits that are trapped in rough areas.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
Small, dark sand dunes are located on the floor of Moreux Crater on Mars as seen by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context image for PIA11926Moreux CraterSmall, dark sand dunes are located on the floor of Moreux Crater.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 41.5N, Longitude 44.9E. 22 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a mesa in the Avernus Colles region of Mars. The mesa and very large blocks that have been shed from its slopes are evident. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-463, 25 August 2003This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows a mesa in the Avernus Colles region of Mars, near 3.9°S, 190.8°W. The mesa and the very large blocks that have been shed from its slopes are all that remain of a once much more extensive suite of layered rock that used to cover the entire area shown here. This full-resolution (1.5 meters--5 feet--per pixel) image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is located southwest of Olympus Mons, shows the end of a lava flow that has flowed between the hills at the upper left portion of the image. | Context imageThis VIS image located southwest of Olympus Mons, shows the end of a lava flow that has flowed between the hills at the upper left portion of the image.Orbit Number: 53048 Latitude: 12.8907 Longitude: 221.307 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-11-28 21:38Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
Some seasonal ice on Mars is transparent so that the sunlight penetrates to the bottom of the ice, as shown in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionSome seasonal ice on Mars is transparent so that the sunlight penetrates to the bottom of the ice. Heat from this sunlight can turn the ice directly into a gas in a process called sublimation and this gas can scour channels in the loose dirt under the ice.Channels formed by sublimation of a layer of seasonal dry ice are so dense in this area that they look like lace. Gas flow erodes channels as it escapes to the surface of the overlying seasonal ice layer seeking the path of least resistance.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows what is termed a pedestal crater, so-called because the level of the surface adjacent to the crater is elevated relative to the surface of the surrounding terrain. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis HiRISE image shows what is termed a pedestal crater, so-called because the level of the surface adjacent to the crater is elevated relative to the surface of the surrounding terrain.The raised surface has patterns and a general outline resembling what ejecta would look like after being thrown out from the crater by the impact. This impact probably occurred at a time when the surface of the whole scene was at the level of the raised surface. The ejecta landed on the part of this surface close to the crater. Erosion then removed material in the rest of the scene while the impact ejecta shielded the area around the crater, protecting the ground under it from eroding and keeping it high.The eroded, or "missing," terrain in the rest of the scene may have contained ice. Lobe shapes at the base of the raised ejecta and polygons (visible when zoomed in) on the surface both suggest the pedestal material may have, or may still, contain ice. The pattern of ejecta is asymmetric around the crater, suggesting the impactor may have hit the ground traveling from the north-east. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
The rust color of the Martian landscape is apparent in this low-resolution thumbnail image taken by the panoramic camera onboard NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. This image is part of a larger image currently stored onboard the rover in its memory. | The rust color of the Martian landscape is apparent in this low-resolution thumbnail image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. This image is part of a larger image currently stored onboard the rover in its memory. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the layered rocks and boulders exposed on the wall of a trough in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars. | 16 July 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the layered rocks and boulders exposed on the wall of a trough in the Terra Sirenum region. The layers that erode to produce large boulders are harder and more resistant to weathering and erosion than those that do not. The slope is located near 25.8°S, 139.8°W. The image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to acquire this view of 'Solander Point.' The southward-looking scene, presented in true color, shows Solander Point on the center horizon. | False ColorFalse Color AnnotatedClick on an individual image for full resolution figures imageNASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to acquire this view of "Solander Point" during the mission's 3,325th Martian day, or sol (June 1, 2013). The southward-looking scene, presented in true color, shows Solander Point on the center horizon, "Botany Bay" in the foreground, and "Cape Tribulation" in the far background at left. Botany Bay is a topographic saddle exposing sedimentary rocks that are part of the Burns formation, a geological unit Opportunity examined during earlier years of the mission. At Botany Bay, the Burns formation is exposed between isolated remnants of Endeavour Crater's rim. Solander Point and Cape Tribulation are rim segments south of Botany Bay. Opportunity is on the way to Solander Point to spend the upcoming winter season on northerly tilted surfaces. Extensive rock strata are evident on the northern side of Solander Point, and these ancient rocks and surrounding bench materials will be investigated in detail by Opportunity as part of the winter science campaign.The false-color versions make some differences among geological materials easier to distinguish; these images combine three exposures taken through Pancam filters centered at wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers, displayed as red, green and blue colors. | |
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the drill on the end of its robotic arm to collect a sample from a rock nicknamed Sequoia on Oct. 17, 2023. The rover's Mastcam captured this image. | NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the drill on the end of its robotic arm to collect a sample from a rock nicknamed "Sequoia" on Oct. 17, 2023, the 3,980th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mission was naming science targets after locations in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range at the time this sample was collected. This image was captured by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam.Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.For more about Curiosity, visit: http://mars.nasa.gov/msl. | |
The Mars Exploration Rover-2 is moved to a workstand in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. | January 28, 2003The Mars Exploration Rover-2 is moved to a workstand in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. Set to launch in 2003, the Mars. Exploration Rover Mission will consist of two identical rovers designed to cover roughly 110 yards (100 meters) each Martian day. Each rover will carry five scientific instruments that will allow it to search for evidence of liquid water that may have been present in the planet's past. The rovers will be identical to each other, but will land at different regions of Mars. The first rover has a launch window opening May 30, 2003, and the second rover a window opening June 25, 2003. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a graben that is part of Cerberus Fossae. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a graben that is part of Cerberus Fossae. The graben of Cerberus fossae dissect Tartarus Montes, indicating that the graben formed after the range of hills that comprise Tartarus Montes.Orbit Number: 62231 Latitude: 10.7466 Longitude: 159.148 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-12-24 20:57Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
Abrasion Work on 'Uchben' | Figure 1Researchers used the rover Spirit's rock abrasion tool to help them study a rock dubbed "Uchben" in the "Columbia Hills" of Mars. The tool ground into the rock, creating a shallow hole 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter in the central upper portion of this image. It also used wire bristles to brush a portion of the surface below and to the right of the hole. Spirit used its panoramic camera during the rover's 293rd martian day (Oct. 29, 2004) to take the frames combined into this approximately true-color image. | |
This NASA Mars Global Surveyor image shows adjacent impact craters located north-northwest of the Acheron Fossae region of Mars. The two craters are of similar size and formed by meteor impacts. | 11 May 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows adjacent impact craters located north-northwest of the Acheron Fossae region of Mars. The two craters are of similar size and formed by meteor impacts. However, one is much more filled than the other, indicating that it is older. The surface of the material in the older, partially-filled crater has a texture similar to the crater's surroundings. The southern (bottom) crater is bowl-shaped and is also partially-filled, however, the filling material seems to be limited to the southern half of the crater.Location near: 44.6°N, 128.4°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: lower left Season: Northern Winter | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-554, 24 November 2003Middle- and polar-latitude gullies are common on crater and trough walls in the martian southern hemisphere. Some also occur in the north. One of the controversies surrounding gullies is whether they involved fluid flow (such as liquid water) or were formed by dry landsliding processes. The occurrence of banked and leveed channels in many gullies argues that they formed by fluid flow. Another question centers on whether gullies are "one-shot deals" or involved more than one episode of fluid flow. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image, acquired in November 2003, shows a gully with an apron, near the center of the frame, that formed by multiple fluid flows. The apron of debris at the base of the gully near the center of the picture is not just one apron, it is three. Three separate aprons formed at three different times. First, the larger, left-most apron formed. Later, another event caused fluid to cut through that apron and create a new one (the middle of the three). Later, a third event cut both aprons and formed a small, third one. This image shows the wall of an impact crater located near 51.3°S, 326.6°W. The image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide, and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left. | |
This animation, constructed using data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, provides an airborne perspective of the Mars 2020 landing site and its exploration area at Jezero Crater. | Click here for animationClick here for animation (unabridged)This animation, constructed using stereo imaging data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, provides an airborne perspective of the Mars 2020 landing site and its exploration area at Jezero Crater. Mars 2020 is expected to land to the southeast of an ancient river delta, a fan-shaped feature inside the northeast rim of Jezero Crater that provides solid evidence of a river and lake system active in and around the crater billions of years ago. The solid white line on the surface indicates a path the rover could take during its prime mission.More information about Mars 2020 is online at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ and https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020/.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers use color calibration targets to fine-tune the rovers' sense of color and thus, that the observed colors of Mars match the colors of the chips, and thus approximate the red planet's true colors. | This image mosaic illustrates how scientists use the color calibration targets (upper left) located on both Mars Exploration Rovers to fine-tune the rovers' sense of color. In the center, spectra, or light signatures, acquired in the laboratory of the colored chips on the targets are shown as lines. Actual data from Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera is mapped on top of these lines as dots. The plot demonstrates that the observed colors of Mars match the colors of the chips, and thus approximate the red planet's true colors. This finding is further corroborated by the picture taken on Mars of the calibration target, which shows the colored chips as they would appear on Earth. | |
NASA's Curiosity left several sets of tracks where the rover experienced a fault, or unexpected stoppage mid-drive, while attempting the most difficult climb the mission has faced. | NASA's Curiosity Mars rover left several sets of tracks where the rover experienced a fault, or unexpected stoppage mid-drive, while climbing a particularly difficult slope. The bright rock seen directly above the rover's wheel is what caused the rover to fault. Tracks can be seen above the wheel at right, indicating where Curiosity backed up and repositioned to try again.The rover's navigation cameras captured this panorama on June 8, 2023, the 3,853rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more about Curiosity, visit: http://mars.nasa.gov/msl | |
Dusty Lava Flows on Ascreaus Mons | Click on image for larger versionAscreaus Mons is one of the giant shield volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. Based on earlier lower resolution images, this location seemed to be ideal for examining how different types of lava flows interacted.The smoother ground on the northwest side of the image is probably a lava flow with a relatively smooth crust much like "pahoehoe" lava flows in Hawaii.The rugged terrain in the southwestern part of the image is indicative of a highly disrupted crust, possibly like what Hawaiians call an "aa" flow. Instead of confirming these hypotheses, HiRISE shows that the lava flow details are obscured by dust. The dust is carved into a curious network of scallops that are too small to have been seen by previous cameras.This is HiRISE image PSP_002209_1865.Observation Toolbox Acquisition date: 1 January 2007Local Mars time: 3:38 PMDegrees latitude (centered): 6.6°Degrees longitude (East): 26.6°Range to target site: 265.5 km (165.9 miles)Original image scale range: 26.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~80 cm across are resolvedMap-projected scale: 25 cm/pixel and north is upMap-projection: EQUIRECTANGULAREmission angle: 1.0°Phase angle: 55.3°Solar incidence angle: 54°, with the Sun about 36° above the horizonSolar longitude: 167.2°, Northern SummerNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. | |
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager took this image on Sol 14 (June 8, 2008), the 14th Martian day after landing. It shows two trenches dug by Phoenix's Robotic Arm. | NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager took this image on Sol 14 (June 8, 2008), the 14th Martian day after landing. It shows two trenches dug by Phoenix's Robotic Arm.Soil from the right trench, informally called "Baby Bear," was delivered to Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, on Sol 12 (June 6). The following several sols included repeated attempts to shake the screen over TEGA's oven number 4 to get fine soil particles through the screen and into the oven for analysis.The trench on the left is informally called "Dodo" and was dug as a test.Each of the trenches is about 9 centimeters (3 inches) wide. This view is presented in approximately true color by combining separate exposures taken through different filters of the Surface Stereo Imager. The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
Northern Hemisphere Gullies with Layers | Click on image for larger versionThis HiRISE image (PSP_001528_2210) shows northern hemisphere gullies on a layered crater wall.Many channels can be seen emanating from beneath layers suggesting that the layers are permeable and carried water to the slope face via the subsurface. It is also possible that the source of water came from the surface. The gullies that do not originate at a layer likely did at one time and have subsequently experienced headward erosion, eroding the layers upslope of their original location.A mantled unit (smooth terrain) can be seen above the sources of and within many of the gullies in this image. The mantled unit has been proposed to be remnant snowpack that melts at its bottom to carve gullies. The mantled unit is less abundant in locations where the gullies are most deeply incised, which supports the melting snowpack theory. Deeper incision typically involves more water and/or more flow events. If the mantled unit is the source of the liquid for the gullies, then it is expected that locations with evidence of larger or more frequent flows would be associated with regions of less mantled unit. It is unknown whether the mantled unit can insulate the surface sufficiently to allow temperatures and pressures appropriate for liquid water formation. An answer to this awaits future modeling of snowpack under Martian conditions.Within the subimage, channels can clearly be seen to originate at a variety of layers. Also noticeable is the smooth, mantled material located between layers above these gullies.Observation GeometryAcquisition date: 11 November 2006Local Mars time: 3:22 PMDegrees latitude (centered): 40.6 °Degrees longitude (East): 120.1 °Range to target site: 298.8 km (186.8 miles) Original image scale range: 29.9 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~90 cm across are resolvedMap-projected scale: 25 cm/pixel and north is upMap-projection: EQUIRECTANGULAREmission angle: 2.3 °Phase angle: 52.3 °Solar incidence angle: 50 °, with the Sun about 40 ° above the horizonSolar longitude: 139.7 °, Northern SummerNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows small dunes located in the plains of Aonia Terra on Mars. | Context image for PIA10260Aonia Terra DunesThese small dunes are located in the plains of Aonia Terra.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -49.1N, Longitude 293.1E. 17 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of an unnamed channel in Arabia Terra. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows part of an unnamed channel in Arabia Terra.Orbit Number: 81023 Latitude: -5.09236 Longitude: 352.53 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-03-20 18:00Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers a location that has been imaged several times to look for changes in gullies. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis image covers a location that has been imaged several times to look for changes in gullies. A comparison is shown in PIA18400 between the first HiRISE image of the location and one of the more recent views.A lobate, rubbly flow (noted by the arrows) has been deposited near the mouth of the channel between the time of the two images. Further up the slope, the channel system has been modified by both erosion and deposition. Other images can pin down the timing of this flow more precisely, but it is easier to see the changes between these two because the lighting is similar.Changes have now been seen in many gullies on Mars, and show that these landforms are evolving rapidly. The timing of the changes is often in winter or early spring, suggesting that they are caused by the carbon dioxide frost that forms in and around most gullies every year.Each of the cutouts is 150 meters (164 yards) wide, and only shows the bottom of the gully channel. Try looking at the whole gully in both images using HiView -- how far up can you find changes?HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mariner 9 taken in 1971 is a view of a canyon system emerging from the Martian dust storm. | View of canyon system emerging from the Martian dust storm.Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. The spacecraft was designed to continue the atmospheric studies begun by Mariners 6 and 7, and to map over 70% of the Martian surface from the lowest altitude (1500 kilometers [900 miles]) and at the highest resolutions (1 kilometer per pixel to 100 meters per pixel) of any previous Mars mission.Mariner 9 was launched on May 30, 1971 and arrived on November 14, 1971. | |
Hilly Surroundings (vertical) | This 360-degree view of the terrain surrounding NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was taken on the rover's 189th sol on Mars (July 15, 2004). It was assembled from images taken by the rover's navigation camera at a position referred to as Site 72, which is at the base of the "West Spur" portion of the "Columbia Hills."" The view is presented in a vertical projection with geometrical seam correction. | |
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a crater and its ejecta on the floor of Tikhov Crater. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows a crater and its ejecta on the floor of the much larger Tikhov Crater.Orbit Number: 6588 Latitude: -50.3387 Longitude: 105.553 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2003-06-09 20:41Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This graphic depicts paths by which carbon has been exchanged among Martian interior, surface rocks, polar caps, waters and atmosphere, and also depicts a mechanism by which it is lost from the atmosphere with a strong effect on isotope ratio. | This graphic depicts paths by which carbon has been exchanged between Martian interior, surface rocks, polar caps, waters and atmosphere, and also depicts a mechanism by which carbon is lost from the atmosphere with a strong effect on isotope ratio. Carbon dioxide (CO2) to generate the Martian atmosphere originated in the planet's mantle and has been released directly through volcanoes or trapped in rocks crystallized from magmas and released later. Once in the atmosphere, the CO2 can exchange with the polar caps, passing from gas to ice and back to gas again. The CO2 can also dissolve into waters, which can then precipitate out solid carbonates, either in lakes at the surface or in shallow aquifers. Carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere is continually lost to space at a rate controlled in part by the sun's activity. One loss mechanism is called ultraviolet photodissociation. It occurs when ultraviolet radiation (indicated on the graphic as "hv") encounters a CO2 molecule, breaking the bonds to first form carbon monoxide (CO) molecules and then carbon (C) atoms. The ratio of carbon isotopes remaining in the atmosphere is affected as these carbon atoms are lost to space, because the lighter carbon-12 (12C) isotope is more easily removed than the heavier carbon-13 (13C) isotope. This fractionation, the preferential loss of carbon-12 to space, leaves a fingerprint: enrichment of the heavy carbon-13 isotope, measured in the atmosphere of Mars today.JPL manages Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, as part of NASA's progress toward a human mission to Mars. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Curiosity, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. | |
This image released on July 9, 2004 from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey shows dust carried aloft by the wind has settled out on every available surface creating sand dunes.southern hemisphere of Mars. | Released 9 July 2004The atmosphere of Mars is a dynamic system. Water-ice clouds, fog, and hazes can make imaging the surface from space difficult. Dust storms can grow from local disturbances to global sizes, through which imaging is impossible. Seasonal temperature changes are the usual drivers in cloud and dust storm development and growth. Eons of atmospheric dust storm activity has left its mark on the surface of Mars. Dust carried aloft by the wind has settled out on every available surface; sand dunes have been created and moved by centuries of wind; and the effect of continual sand-blasting has modified many regions of Mars, creating yardangs and other unusual surface forms. In our final dust devil image we are again looking at the southern hemisphere of Mars. These tracks occur mainly on the northeast side of the topographic ridges. Of course, there are many exceptions, which makes understanding the dynamics that initiate the actual dust devil cyclone difficult.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -47.6, Longitude 317.3 East (42.7 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows several features found in Lycus Sulci on Mars including tectonic derived ridges (bottom of frame) with dark slope streaks and extensive wind etching and erosion of materials (top of frame). | Context imageCredit: NASA/JPL/MOLALycus Sulci is a very complex region surrounding the northern flank of Olympus Mons. This VIS image shows several features found in Lycus Sulci including tectonic derived ridges (bottom of frame) with dark slope streaks and extensive wind etching and erosion of materials (top of frame).Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 26.9N, Longitude 226.4E. 24 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. | |
This image acquired on November 30, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a complex crater, where we see bedrock in several locations from different depths in the crust. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionIn this complex crater (about 44-kilometers in diameter), we see bedrock in several locations from different depths in the crust. The central uplift exposes large fragments of green-toned bedrock that possibly originated from several kilometers beneath the surface. To the south of the crater, we see more of this bedrock along with material that was excavated and thrown out after the impact. In craters of this size, the rim is unstable and collapses inwards forming terraces, which occasionally exposes more bedrock that would have originated from close to the surface than the rocks exposed within the uplift itself. Central uplifts have better exposures of bedrock, but in this example the terraces steal the show, displaying beautiful green- and light-toned bedrock at multiple locations. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 53.4 centimeters (21.0 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 160 centimeters (63.0 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.This is a stereo pair with ESP_057932_1670.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image shows the area where NASA's Sojourner rover is currently exploring. Having just investigated the Mermaid Dune, at left center, the rover is now heading toward the assemblage of large rocks at right. Sol 1 began on July 4, 1997. | This image shows the area where the Sojourner rover is currently exploring. Having just investigated the Mermaid Dune, at left center, the rover is now heading toward the assemblage of large rocks at right.Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and managed the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows flows west of Arsia Mons also contains a large windstreak. Note the surface texture in the 'white' part of the windstreak is more subdued than the rest of the flow. | Today's image of the flows west of Arsia Mons also contains a large windstreak. Note the surface texture in the "white" part of the windstreak is more subdued than the rest of the flow. This is because the wind has deposited fine materials in this area. The wind can both erode the surface and cover it with deposits. Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -7.7, Longitude 227.5 East (132.5 West). 17 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
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