Released August 23, 2004

The THEMIS Image of the Day will be exploring the nomenclature of Mars for the next three weeks.

Apollinaris Patera

• Patera: an irregular crater, or a complex one with scalloped edges
• Apollinaris: The Aquae Apollinares is a hot springs northwest of Rome in Etruria. This hot springs location was known to both the Etruscans and the Romans.

Apollonaris Patera is the remains of a caldera located on the top of an old volcano near Gusev Crater. The image above is a mosaic of daytime IR frames.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: On Europa, another moon of Jupiter, linear features are named for Celtic stone rows, while ring features are named for Celtic stone circles.

Image information: IR instrument. Latitude -9.8, Longitude 174.4 East (185.6 West). 100 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.