Playing with Mars

About THEMIS & the Mars Odyssey mission / themis.asu.edu

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 See where Odyssey will be this week, and suggest a place for THEMIS to photograph.

Live from Mars 

Interactive Mars

The "Face on Mars"

The picture shows eroded mesa-like landforms. 

The huge rock formation in the center, which resembles a human head, is formed by shadows
giving the illusion of eyes, nose and mouth. 

The feature is 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across, with the sun angle at approximately
20 degrees. 

The speckled appearance of the image is due to bit errors,emphasized by enlargement of the photo.  The picture was taken on July
25 from a range of 1873 kilometers (1162 miles). 

Viking 2 will arrive in Mars orbit next Saturday (August 7) with a landing scheduled for

early September. msss.com

Extreme Close-Up of the Face on Mars

 Article by  Nancy Atkinson universetoday.com

uahirise.org