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Matara Crater Dunes

Feb. 13, 2019
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows the sand deposit on the floor of Matara Crater. The deposit is thick enough to hide the underlying crater floor creating a sheet of sand.
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Today's VIS image shows the sand deposit on the floor of Matara Crater. The deposit is thick enough to hide the underlying crater floor creating a sheet of sand. Upon this sheet of sand the wind has created dune forms. Matara Crater is located in Noachis Terra.

Orbit Number: 75438 Latitude: -49.5195 Longitude: 34.6327 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-12-16 19:39

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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