NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft has captured a new image of the Martian horizon as it orbits the planet, from an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
The image is an achievement that took months to coordinate, and scientists say it will allow them to compare Mars to Earth by looking at similar images taken from the International Space Station.
“If there were astronauts in orbit around Mars, this is the perspective they would have,” says astronomer Jonathan Hale, of Arizona State University. “No Martian spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before.”
The image was captured using Odyssey’s Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS.
To see the Martian horizon, scientists had to send commands to tilt the entire Odyssey orbiter by 90 degrees, pointing THEMIS toward the edge of the horizon. Keeping the spacecraft that way throughout its orbit until THEMIS has time to take a series of 10 images that are stitched together to create the panorama.
The best position was to point the spacecraft’s antenna away from Earth for the duration, meaning that Odyssey was out of contact with Earth for all the hours the project took.
But the result was worth the time and effort, as the dry, cratered surface of Mars appears in the foreground, a strange and wonderful landscape. Above, the thin, fragile atmosphere of Mars floats, with clouds and dust suspended in it.
Mars contains water ice clouds, like Earth, as well as carbon dioxide ice clouds that form when weather conditions are suitable.
Now that Odyssey has demonstrated its true capabilities, researchers hope to take more images of the Martian horizon during different times of the year, to see how the atmosphere changes with the seasons.
