Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Dunes

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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This image shows realtively dark coarse grained material forming individual dunes coalescing into a relatively uniform sand sheet. The origin of the dark sand that formed these dunes have been suggested to be the northern polar layered deposits.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University