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Today's VIS image shows part of the floor of Lyot Crater, including a large field of sand dunes on the crater floor. At 236 km diameter (146 miles), Lyot Crater is one of the largest craters in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Lyot is a double ringed crater, and these dunes are located in the outer of the two rings. Lyot Crater is located in Vastitas Borealis, part of the northern hemisphere lowlands.Craters that contain two rings — one inside the other — are variously called peak ring craters or double ring basins. This morphology can develop in craters larger than 100 km across.

Orbit Number: 80098 Latitude: 49.2071 Longitude: 29.7776 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-01-04 14:22

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.