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Canyon Junction

A false-color mosaic focuses on one junction in Noctis Labyrinthus where Mars canyons meet to form a depression 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep.

April 01, 2012

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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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.
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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.
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Artist's concept of future humans on Mars.
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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 featur...
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Western Arcadia Planitia
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Mars Odyssey Observes Martian Moons
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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
This image of Phobos is one product of the first pointing at that Martian moon by the THEMIS camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.  The Sept. 29, 2017, observation also provided information about ...
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Martian Moon Phobos Observed by NASA's Odyssey
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This image shows two small tributaries, just east of where they join Shalbatana Vallis.
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Shalbatana Vallis
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This mosaic of day and night infrared THEMIS images shows landslides flowed over 100 kilometers (62 miles) across the floor of Melas Chasma.
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Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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