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Artist's concept of future humans on Mars.

Artist's concept of future humans on Mars.

August 24, 2004

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This unnamed channel is located in Xanthe Terra.
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This unnamed channel is located in Xanthe Terra.
Channel in Xanthe Terra
2906_HighViewOfMidCanyonMelas.jpg
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2906_HighViewOfMidCanyonMelas.jpg
High View of Melas
This false color image shows a region with craters of different ages located at the margin of Acidalia Planitia. This image was collected during the Northern Spring season.
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This false color image shows a region with craters of different ages located at the margin of Acidalia Planitia. This image was collected during the Northern Spring season. The THEMIS VIS camera is capable of capturing color images of the Martian surface using five different color filters. In this mode of operation, the spatial resolution and coverage of the image must be reduced to accommodate the additional data volume produced from using multiple filters. To make a color image, three of the five filter images (each in grayscale) are selected. Each is contrast enhanced and then converted to a red, green, or blue intensity image. These three images are then combined to produce a full color, single image. Because the THEMIS color filters don't span the full range of colors seen by the human eye, a color THEMIS image does not represent true color. Also, because each single-filter image is contrast enhanced before inclusion in the three-color image, the apparent color variation of the scene is exaggerated. Nevertheless, the color variation that does appear is representative of some change in color, however subtle, in the actual scene. Note that the long edges of THEMIS color images typically contain color artifacts that do not represent surface variation.
Cratered Acidalia Planitia
Marte Vallis, located in Amazonis Planitia, is broad and shallow. The streamlined islands at the top and bottom of the image illustrate this.
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Marte Vallis, located in Amazonis Planitia, is broad and shallow. The streamlined islands at the top and bottom of the image illustrate this.
Marte Vallis in Amazonis Planitia
In Ares Vallis, teardrop mesas extend like pennants behind impact craters, where the raised rocky rims diverted the floods and protected the ground from erosion.
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In Ares Vallis, teardrop mesas extend like pennants behind impact craters, where the raised rocky rims diverted the floods and protected the ground from erosion.
Mars Odyssey All Stars: Ares Vallis
Although this may look like a hostile alien life form, it's actually a complex line of sand dunes near the northern ice cap of Mars.
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Although this may look like a hostile alien life form, it's actually a complex line of sand dunes near the northern ice cap of Mars.
Mars Odyssey All Stars: Reptilian Dunes
Color coding in this map of a far-northern site on Mars indicates the change in nighttime ground-surface temperature between summer and fall. This site, like most of high-latitude Mars, has water i...
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Depth-to-Ice Map of an Arctic Site on Mars
Depth-to-Ice Map of an Arctic Site on Mars
Around 200 kilometers long, Ravi Vallis was born in a flood of water from Aromatum Chaos.
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Around 200 kilometers long, Ravi Vallis was born in a flood of water from Aromatum Chaos (left). The racing waters sliced a pathway across Xanthe Terra, spawned at least two small chaos regions in the channel (center), and then hurtled over the plateau edge to disappear into another chaos region (right foreground). In the distance at left lies Orson Welles Crater and the meandering path of Shalbatana Vallis, a much longer outflow channel perhaps related hydrologically to Ravi.
Ravi Vallis
A group of small, unnamed craters in the martian southern hemisphere is the first site captured by a group of middle school students who are operating the camera system onboard NASA's Mars Odyssey ...
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Students looking at a computer while participating in the Mars Student Imaging Project
Students participating in the Mars Student Imaging Project
This is a Mars Odyssey visible color image of an unnamed crater in western Arcadia Planitia (near 39 degrees N, 179 degrees E). The crater shows a number of interesting internal and external featur...
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This is a Mars Odyssey visible color image of an unnamed crater in western Arcadia Planitia (near 39 degrees N, 179 degrees E). The crater shows a number of interesting internal and external features that suggest that it has undergone substantial modification since it formed. These features include concentric layers and radial streaks of brighter, redder materials inside the crater, and a heavily degraded rim and ejecta blanket. The patterns inside the crater suggest that material has flowed or slumped towards the center. Other craters with features like this have been seen at both northern and southern mid latitudes The distribution of these kinds of craters suggests the possible influence of surface or subsurface ice in the formation of these enigmatic features. The image was taken on September 29, 2002 during late northern spring. This is an approximate true color image, generated from a long strip of visible red (654 nm), green (540 nm), and blue (425 nm) filter images that were calibrated using a combination of pre-flight measurements and Hubble images of Mars. The colors appear perhaps a bit darker than one might expect; this is most likely because the images were acquired in late afternoon (roughly 4:40 p.m. local solar time) and the low Sun angle results in an overall darker surface.
Western Arcadia Planitia
This computer-generated view based on multiple orbital observations shows Mars' Gale crater as if seen from an aircraft north of the crater.
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This computer-generated view based on multiple orbital observations shows Mars' Gale crater as if seen from an aircraft north of the crater.
Oblique view of Gale Crater from the North
Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars," sprawls wide enough to reach from Los Angeles to nearly New York City, if it were located on Earth. The red outline box shows the location of a second,...
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Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars," sprawls wide enough to reach from Los Angeles to nearly New York City, if it were located on Earth. The red outline box shows the location of a second, full-resolution image.
Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars"
Seen shortly after local Martian sunrise, clouds gather in the summit pit, or caldera, of Pavonis Mons, a giant volcano on Mars, in this image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on N...
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Seen shortly after local Martian sunrise, clouds gather in the summit pit, or caldera, of Arsia Mons, a giant volcano on Mars, in this image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Morning Clouds Atop Martian Mountain
Continuing our survey of non-crater dune fields brings us to this group of dunes in Aonia Terra. The daytime IR illustrates the warmth of the dune material compared to the surrounding materials.
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Continuing our survey of non-crater dune fields brings us to this group of dunes in Aonia Terra. The daytime IR illustrates the warmth of the dune material compared to the surrounding materials.
Aonia Terra Dunes
The floor of this crater in Terra Sirenum contains layered material. The layered sedimentary material on Mars is arguably the most interesting and compelling material on the planet. These layers mo...
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The floor of this crater in Terra Sirenum contains layered material. The layered sedimentary material on Mars is arguably the most interesting and compelling material on the planet. These layers most likely contain the answers to fundamental questions about Martian geology, climate, and possibly even biology.
Terra Sirenum Crater
Wind shadow and real shadow combine to give a striking image of a comet.
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Wind shadow and real shadow combine to give a striking image of a comet.
THEMIS Images as Art
The channels in this VIS image are part of Tyrrhena Fossae on the northern flank of Tyrrhenus Mons.
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The channels in this VIS image are part of Tyrrhena Fossae on the northern flank of Tyrrhenus Mons.
Tyrrhena Fossae
Sixteen seventh-graders at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found the Martian pit feature at the center of the superimposed red square in this image while participating in a program t...
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Martian Pit Feature Found by Seventh Graders
Martian Pit Feature Found by Seventh Graders
Getting to Mars is difficult enough -- staying there is even more challenging. Odyssey met up with Mars on October 24 02:26 UTC (October 23: 7:26 p.m. PDT/10:26 p.m.EDT).
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Orbit Insertion
Orbit Insertion
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an unprecedented full decade of observing Mars from orbit.
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The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an unprecedented full decade of observing Mars from orbit.
Tenth Anniversary Image from Camera on NASA Mars Orbiter
This crater, located in Chryse Planitia, is relatively unmodified, meaning it appears very much like it did when it first formed.
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This crater, located in Chryse Planitia, is relatively unmodified, meaning it appears very much like it did when it first formed.
Lismore Crater
This lunar-like scene occurs along the southeastern rim of the Isidis Planitia basin. The Isidis basin is an ancient impact crater some 1200 km across that is found along the boundary separating th...
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This lunar-like scene occurs along the southeastern rim of the Isidis Planitia basin. The Isidis basin is an ancient impact crater some 1200 km across that is found along the boundary separating the heavily-cratered southern highland terrain of Mars from the northern lowlands. Elements of both terrains are evident in this image as an island of rugged highland terrain surrounded by smoother lowland terrain. The resurfacing of the Isidis basin produced a system of wrinkle ridges, some of which are seen on the lowland terrain in the image. Wrinkle ridges are a common feature on the surface of the moon and add to the lunar-like quality of this image. Layers are visible in the large island, the most resistant of which likely are from lava flows that created the highland terrain. The process by which the global-scale highland/lowland dichotomy was created remains a mystery.
Isidis Rim
This image of a crater in Acidalia Planitia was acquired March 8, 2003, during northern summer.
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This image of a crater in Acidalia Planitia was acquired March 8, 2003, during northern summer.
Acidalia Planitia Crater
Planum Boreum crater
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Planum Boreum crater
Planum Boreum crater
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the margin of the north polar cap and the surrounding plains. The layering of the ice is easily visible due to the dust that is dep...
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This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the margin of the north polar cap and the surrounding plains. The layering of the ice is easily visible due to the dust that is deposited on the top of the ice every year, creating layering over millions of years.
Polar Layers

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