Released August 25, 2004

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

Ares Vallis

• Vallis: valley
• Ares: Greek god of war, corresponding to the Roman god Mars.

Ares Vallis is one of the larger channels on Mars. It is located near several other large channels that appear to empty into Chryse Planitia. This image is a mosaic of two VIS frames.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: The asteroid Mathilde is one of the darkest objects in the Solar System, reflecting only about 3% of the light that strikes it. It has been described as being "blacker that coal," so its craters are named for coal fields and basins around the world.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 8.6, Longitude 337.7 East (22.3 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.