CALIFORNIA, iNews.id – NASA has shared exciting new images to celebrate the orbiter’s birthday Mars Odyssey. The Mars Odyssey orbiter has been orbiting the Red Planet for 20 years.
The image was released last Thursday and shows lines in the dunes near the north polar cap of Mars. The image captures a 19 mile wide section of the sea of dunes on the Martian surface Slash Gears, Monday (12/4/2021).
However, the entire area of dunes on the planet is approximately the size of Texas. The color of the image is wrong, so the color actually represents the temperature. Blue indicates cooler temperatures, with yellow marking dune areas warmed by the Sun.
The photos are made using a combination of images taken by the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System. The images were taken between December 2002 and November 2004 but are only now being shared to celebrate the orbiter’s birthday.
Mars Odyssey orbits Mars using thermal imaging to detect evidence of water and ice on the planet. The orbiter was launched in 2001 and is now the longest working Mars spacecraft in history.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
