06 August 2010
This image shows a 90-mile-wide portion of the giant Valles Marineris canyon system. Landslide debris and gullies in the canyon walls on Mars are shown at 100 meters per pixel.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University
A camera aboard NASA's Mars-orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft has allowed developing the most accurate global Martian map ever. The map can be accessed through several websites.
The map was produced using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, (THEMIS), an infrared camera onboard Odyssey. Researchers at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have been compiling the map for eight years.
The pictures have been manipulated, to make a giant mosaic. Viewers can pan around, and zoom into the images. At maximum zoom, the smallest surface features are 100 meters across. While areas of Mars have been mapped at higher resolution, this map provides the most detailed view so far of the entire planet.
The new map is available at the following link.
http://www.mars.asu.edu/maps/?layer=thm_dayir_100m_v11 .
"The Mars Odyssey THEMIS team has assembled a spectacular product that will be the base map for Mars researchers for many years to come," said Jeffrey Plaut, Odyssey project scientist at JPL. "The map lays the framework for global studies of properties such as the mineral composition and physical nature of the surface materials."
Mars Odyssey was launched in April 2001, and arrived at Mars in October 2001. In February 2002, the science mission began. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The name "2001 Mars Odyssey" was selected as a tribute to the vision and spirit of space exploration as embodied in the works of renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Further Reading
NASA's Odyssey Website
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey
NASA Press Release
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey/odyssey20100723.html
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist