Investigating Mars: Ascraeus Mons

Looking again at the southeastern flank of the volcano the narrow nature of the flows are visible. Given the steep sides of the volcano, flows from the summit run as narrow "rivers" down the flank. The flows spread out into wider units when they encounter the flatter plains surrounding the volcano. 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: 16791 Latitude: 9.07941 Longitude: 257.113 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2005-09-26 22:34 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21821