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Sand and Ice

Feb. 19, 2021
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows an unnamed crater located on the margin of the south polar cap.
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Today's VIS image shows an unnamed crater located on the margin of the south polar cap. A very large mound of sand on the crater floor merges with the edge of the polar ice. The dunes in the crater appear different from other crater dunes on Mars due to the influence of ice within the sand.

Orbit Number: 84231 Latitude: -72.3612 Longitude: 143.513 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-12-09 20:51

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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