Released 18 August 2003

This image shows Koga crater, named for a town in Tanzania. It is located in a region called Claritas Fossae, full of large linear features that are not visible in this particular image. What is visible is a mantle of fine material that is draped over much of the terrain, particularly in the floor of the crater. Note how the low-lying surfaces are smooth and dark, covered in this layer of fine material. Sharp blocks and cliffs poke through this mantle, showing that either the mantle never buried all of the underlying topography, or that some of it has eroded away to expose the higher ground.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -29.1, Longitude 256.1 East (103.9 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.

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.