NASA's Mars Odyssey continues to churn out detailed imagery of the Martian surface. A just released photo shoot in infrared of the so-called "Face on Mars" has allowed more interpretation of the landform and the surrounding terrain.
Odyssey's picture taking provides a broad perspective of the landscape and geology of the Cydonia region -- home of the "face" -- showing numerous knobs and hills that have been eroded into a remarkable array of different shapes.
According to Arizona State University scientists, the "big picture" view of the Cydonia region yields a kind of slap in the face to those touting the feature as carved out by previous Mars homeowners.
The region is covered with dozens of interesting knobs and mesas that are similar in many ways to the knob named the Face - so many in fact that it requires care to discover the Face among this jumble of knobs and hills.
Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is determining the mineralogy of the Martian surface using multispectral, thermal infrared images. The goal of the project is to map the entire planet in infrared using THEMIS.
The THEMIS infrared camera has ten different filters between 6.2 and 15 micrometers - nine view the surface and one scans the carbon dioxide-laden atmosphere.
Face the facts
A Viking orbiter spacecraft first imaged the 1.8-mile (3-kilometer) long knob in the 1970's. Some researchers saw the structure as resembling a face carved into the rocks of Mars.
Since that time the Mars Orbiter Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has provided detailed views of this hill that clearly show that it is a normal geologic feature with slopes and ridges carved by eons of wind and downslope motion due to gravity.
Many of the knobs in Cydonia, including the Face, have several flat ledges partway up the hill slopes.
These ledges are made of more resistant layers of rock and are the last remnants of layers that once were continuous across this entire region. Erosion has completely removed these layers in most places, leaving behind only the small isolated hills and knobs seen today.
The Mars Odyssey has been orbiting the red planet since late October 2001. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C.
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. Philip Christensen leads the THEMIS investigation at Arizona State University.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, developing and building the spacecraft. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colorado and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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