NASA's Odyssey Above Mars

MARSDAILY

This image from the camera system on NASA.s Mars Odyssey was acquired of Candor Chasma within Valles Marineris, centered near 5 degrees south latitude, 283 degrees west longitude. This visible color image shows the effects of erosion on a sequence of dramatically layered rocks. These layers were initially deposited within Candor Chasma and have subsequently been eroded by a variety of processes, including wind and down-slope motion due to gravity. Relatively dark materials appear to mantle some areas of the layered deposits; these dark materials are likely sand. Few impact craters of any size can be seen in this image, indicating that the erosion and transport of material is occurring at a relatively rapid rate, so that any craters that form are rapidly buried or eroded. This image was acquired using the thermal infrared imaging system.s visible bands 1 (centered at 420 nanometers), 2 (centered at 550 nanometers), and 3 (centered at 650 nanometers), and covers an area approximately 19 kilometers (12 miles) in width by 50 kilometers (50 miles) in length. Photo by NASA/ JPL/ Arizona State University/ Cornell University.

Pasadena - Dec 12, 2002
The latest observations from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, highlighting water ice distribution and infrared images of the Red Planet's surface, are being released this week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

"The Odyssey science mission is going exceptionally well," said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut, the Odyssey project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"The instrument teams have already collected a huge volume of data, and the presentations at this conference are the most extensive and illuminating of the mission so far."

In mid-October the frozen carbon dioxide, which seasonally caps Mars' north pole, evaporated enough to give Odyssey's scientists their first chance to look there for ice.

"We are really excited about what we are seeing in the north polar region of Mars. With the seasonal carbon dioxide frost gone, we can see evidence of massive amounts of water ice in the soil, even more than we found in the south," said Dr. William Boynton, principal investigator for Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer suite at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

"The infrared and visible images have revealed a wonderful diversity of surface types and features. Nighttime temperature images show complex patterns of rock layers, rocky debris, sand and dust produced by impact cratering, wind erosion and deposition," said Dr. Philip Christensen, principal investigator for Odyssey's thermal-infrared imaging system at Arizona State University, Tempe.

"Color infrared images of Mars show variations in rock layers similar to those seen in the layered rocks of the Grand Canyon. The visible color images show Mars to be a dusty place, with most of the surface covered by a thin layer of bright orange-red dust."

"The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment has observed very different space weather near Mars than has been seen during the same period by satellites near Earth," said Dr. Cary Zeitlin, principal investigator for that experiment at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Houston.

"Variations in space weather are caused by solar activity, including solar flares. To help us understand these events, we compare data from Odyssey to data from similar instruments in orbit around Earth. The recent observations are particularly exciting because Earth and Mars have been on opposite sides of the Sun," he said.

MARSDAILY

Warm and Wet Mars takes a Cold Bath

San Francisco - Dec 12, 2002
Last week, at a special session of the American Geophysical Union's annual Fall meeting in San Francisco, over two dozen experts in Mars' climate and hydrology met to discuss issues relating to how river-like channels formed on the planet, focusing especially on the very earliest evidence dating back to the Noachian era (3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago).

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