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Investigating Mars: Moreux Crater

Nov. 15, 2017
This image of Moreux Crater from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the central peak and fields of sand dunes on the crater floor surrounding the peak. This image illustrates the abundance of sand dunes located on the floor of the crater.
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This image of Moreux Crater shows part of the central peak and fields of sand dunes on the crater floor surrounding the peak. This image is just north of the previous image and illustrates the abundance of sand dunes located on the floor of the crater. The lower elevations of the central peak are visible on the left side of the image, with the highest elevations just off the image edge. The part of the peak with a pitted surface texture has been interpreted to be created by glacial flows. Moreux Crater is located in northern Arabia Terra and has a diameter of 138 kilometers.

The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 69000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all. For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields. We hope you enjoy these images!

Orbit Number: 36739 Latitude: 41.7743 Longitude: 44.8774 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-03-27 10:21

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.

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