Mars Odyssey - chemical mapper

cIclops · 2006-10-03 02:55:35

Sadly there is no thread on Mars Odyssey in the forum, hopefully it is not too late to add these details:

Still in orbit around Mars, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has collected more than 130,000 images and continues to send information to Earth about Martian geology, climate, and mineralogy.
Measurements by Odyssey have enabled scientists to create maps of minerals and chemical elements and identify regions with buried water ice. Images that measure the surface temperature have provided spectacular views of Martian topography. Odyssey is currently supporting landing site selection for the Phoenix Scout Mission, to be launched in 2007.

Also checkout the THEMIS homepage - it has remarkable images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System

And finally Odyssesy's latest discovery:

Illustration from the article Jets Bursting From Martian Ice Cap

Jets of carbon dioxide gas erupting from the ice cap as it warms in the spring carry dark sand and dust high aloft. The dark material falls back to the surface, creating dark patches on the ice cap which have long puzzled scientists. Deducing the eruptions of carbon dioxide gas from under the warming ice cap solves the riddle of the spots. It also reveals that this part of Mars is much more dynamically active than had been expected for any part of the planet.

cIclops · 2008-01-27 18:07:01

Unraveling the Chaos in Aram - Zoomable color image

When Mars was still young, more than four billion years ago, a large asteroid sailed out of the sky and slammed into an area known today as western Arabia Terra. The object hit hard enough that it blasted a basin at least 280 kilometers (175 miles) wide. The basin is now named Aram Chaos.
As many millions of years passed, into this yawning bowl drifted sediments of many kinds - wind-blown dust, sand, and volcanic ash. The Martian climate was wetter then, so the crater-filling debris became saturated with water, which likely froze as the climate shifted and cooled. Then something triggered the ground ice to melt. Perhaps the ice-locked sediments trapped residual heat from the original impact or, more likely, molten rock moved into the fractured ground below the basin. (The floor of Aram has a gentle upward dome, which supports this idea.)
Whatever happened, warmth melted the ground ice, causing the sediments to collapse in a chaotic network of valleys, mesas, and hills. These show most clearly in the south and west parts of Aram. The liberated meltwater pooled in the basin, eventually rising to overflow the basin rim on the eastern side, where in a geological instant, a surging flood carved a narrow channel leading down into Ares Vallis.
A dramatic story, but Mars was not finished with Aram.

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#1 2006-10-03 02:55:35

Re: Mars Odyssey - chemical mapper

#2 2008-01-27 18:07:01

Re: Mars Odyssey - chemical mapper

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