A look at the 20-year journey of the Mars Odyssey orbit
NASA launched the Mars Odyssey orbit on April 7, 2001.
NASA has released a new image of Mars showing a sea of blue dunes on the Red Planet.
The agency shared the image on April 8. It is a combination of images taken between December 2002 and November 2004 by the instrument of the Thermal Emission Imaging System on the Mars Odyssey orbit.
The photo shows a sea of dark-colored dunes formed by the winds at the northern polar cap of the planet. Scientists said it covers an area as large as Texas.
A sea of dark dunes, formed by the wind in long lines, surrounds the northern polar cap that covers an area as large as Texas. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU)
And while the picture is beautiful, do not let the colors fool you. NASA said the image is a false color image, and that the blue represents cooler temperatures while the yellow and oranges represent warmer temperatures.
The photo is part of a series of photos in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Odyssey, the long-running Mars spacecraft in history.
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The Mars Odyssey was launched on April 7, 2001 and is currently still orbiting Mars. Its purpose is to map the composition of the Martian surface to help scientists develop the planet.
The spacecraft is also responsible for returning images of Mars’ ice sheets and the moon’s of the planet.
It is named after Arthur C. Clarke’s classic science fiction novel “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
This story was reported from Los Angeles.