Icaria Planum

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Caption:

Released 23 December 2003

An unnamed crater west of Icaria Planum hosts an even smaller crater with interesting features both inside and out. A strange pattern of light-toned surfaces appears to be associated with the ejecta of this crater. Within the crater, the ubiquitous high latitude "pasted on terrain" is evident along with gullies, a combination of features that tends to support the idea that the pasted-on material is dirty snow whose melting leads to the formation of gullies. Completing the ensemble of features are accumulations of dark sand within the rugged topography of the crater floor.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -45.4°, Longitude 248.2° East (111.8%deg; 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.

Background Info:

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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