Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
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Detailed information on this image is available at the THEMIS Data Releases website.

 

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

 

The remarkable terrain at the "center" of the planet (0 degrees latitude and longitude) is called Meridiani Planum. It hosts a rare occurrence of gray crystalline hematite that is being visited by Opportunity, one of the two Mars Exploration Rovers. Just to the ENE of the hematite deposit is the eroded, layered terrain seen in this image, which lacks spectral evidence for hematite. Small regions that may be sand dunes occur within the darker material.