NASA Orbiter Snaps Stunning Views of Mars Horizon

Astronauts often react with awe when they see the curvature of the Earth below the International Space Station. Now Mars scientists are getting a taste of what that’s like, thanks to NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, which completed its 22nd year at the Red Planet last month.

This unusual view of the horizon of Mars was captured by NASA’s Odyssey orbiter using its THEMIS camera, in an operation that took engineers three months to plan. It’s taken from about 250 miles above the Martian surface – about the same altitude at which the International Space Station orbits Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

The spacecraft captured a series of panoramic images that showcases the curving Martian landscape below gauzy layers of clouds and dust.

Stitched end to end, the 10 images offer not only a fresh, and stunning, view of Mars, but also one that will help scientists gain new insights into the Martian atmosphere.

The spacecraft took the images in May from an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) – the same altitude at which the space station flies above Earth.

“If there were astronauts in orbit over Mars, this is the perspective they would have,” said Jonathon Hill of Arizona State University, operations lead for Odyssey’s camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS. “No Mars spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before.”

The reason why the view is so uncommon is because of the challenges involved in creating it. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, and Lockheed Martin Space, which built Odyssey and co-leads day-to-day operations, spent three months planning the THEMIS observations.

The infrared camera’s sensitivity to warmth enables it to map ice, rock, sand, and dust, along with temperature changes, on the planet’s surface.

It can also measure how much water ice or dust is in the atmosphere, but only in a narrow column directly below the spacecraft. That’s because THEMIS is fixed in place on the orbiter; it usually points straight down.

The mission wanted a more expansive view of the atmosphere. Seeing where those layers of water-ice clouds and dust are in relation to each other – whether there’s one layer or several stacked on top of each other – helps scientists improve models of Mars’ atmosphere.

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