Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
Winter in Mars' North Polar Region
Original Caption Released with Image:
Observations by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft show a wintertime view of the north polar region of Mars in intermediate-energy, or epithermal, neutrons. The map is based on data acquired by the high-energy neutron detector, one of the instruments in Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer suite. Soil enriched by hydrogen is indicated by the purple and deep blue colors on the map, which show a low intensity of epithermal neutrons. Progressively smaller amounts of hydrogen are shown in the colors light blue, green, yellow and red. The hydrogen is believed to be in the form of water ice. Much of the hydrogen is hidden at this time beneath a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice). A shaded-relief rendition of topography is superimposed on this map for geographic reference.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, operate the science instruments. The gamma-ray spectrometer was provided by the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and Institute for Space Research (IKI), which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/GSFC/IKI
Produced By:
JPL
Mission:
2001 Mars Odyssey
Spacecraft:
2001 Mars Odyssey
Target Name:
Mars
Is a satellite of:
Sol (our sun)
Instrument:
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Product Size:
2560 samples x 1918 lines
Producer ID:
2003-091
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
Polar
facet_what:
Spectrometer
facet_what:
Mars
facet_what:
2001 Mars Odyssey
facet_what:
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where:
Denver
facet_where:
Mars
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
New Mexico
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_where:
Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image #:
PIA04595
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA04595
orignial url:

Winter in Mars' North Polar Region