PIA21003: Polar Textures
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  2001 Mars Odyssey
 Spacecraft:  2001 Mars Odyssey
 Instrument:  THEMIS
 Product Size:  982 x 2623 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Arizona State University
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21003.tif (2.475 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21003.jpg (396.1 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

Context image for PIA21003
Context image

This VIS image of the South Polar cap shows several different surface textures. It appears that the circular depressions (which look like swiss cheese) alter with time, appearing to lose the circular shape as the intervening walls of ice are removed.

Orbit Number: 65187 Latitude: -87.0386 Longitude: 276.053 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2016-08-24 07:47

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Image Addition Date:
2016-10-04