South Polar Surface

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Caption:

Context image

It is high summer now at the South Pole of Mars. The circular surface features may look like swiss cheese, but how they form, coalesce, and disappear is not fully understood.

Orbit Number: 42220 Latitude: -86.1774 Longitude: 289.83 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-06-21 16:01

Background Info:

Please 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.

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