{"id":230954,"date":"2025-06-07T03:20:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=874549"},"modified":"2025-06-07T03:20:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:20:52","slug":"nasa-mars-orbiter-captures-volcano-peeking-above-morning-cloud-tops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=230954","title":{"rendered":"NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Arsia Mons, an ancient Martian volcano, was captured before dawn on May 2, 2025, by NASA\u2019s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter while the spacecraft was studying the Red Planet\u2019s atmosphere, which appears here as a greenish haze.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 2001 Odyssey spacecraft captured a first-of-its-kind look at Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth\u2019s tallest volcanoes.<\/em><\/p>\n

A new panorama from NASA\u2019s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter<\/a> shows one of the Red Planet\u2019s biggest volcanoes, Arsia Mons, poking through a canopy of clouds just before dawn. Arsia Mons and two other volcanoes form what is known as the Tharsis Montes, or Tharsis Mountains, which are often surrounded by water ice clouds (as opposed to Mars\u2019 equally common carbon dioxide clouds), especially in the early morning. This panorama marks the first time one of the volcanoes has been imaged on the planet\u2019s horizon, offering the same perspective of Mars that astronauts have of the Earth when they peer down from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2001, Odyssey is the longest-running mission orbiting another planet, and this new panorama represents the kind of science the orbiter began pursuing in 2023, when it captured the first of its now four high-altitude images of the Martian horizon<\/a>. To get them, the spacecraft rotates 90 degrees while in orbit so that its camera, built to study the Martian surface, can snap the image.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>
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Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three volcanoes that make up Tharsis Montes, shown in the center of this cropped topographic map of Mars. Olympus Mons, the solar system\u2019s largest volcano, is at upper left. The western end of Valles Marineris begins cutting its wide swath across the planet at lower right.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The angle allows scientists to see dust and water ice cloud layers, while the series of images enables them to observe changes over the course of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing some really significant seasonal differences in these horizon images,\u201d said planetary scientist Michael D. Smith of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cIt\u2019s giving us new clues to how Mars\u2019 atmosphere evolves over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding Mars\u2019 clouds is particularly important for understanding the planet\u2019s weather and how phenomena like dust storms occur. That information, in turn, can benefit future missions, including entry, descent and landing operations.<\/p>\n

Volcanic Giants<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While these images focus on the upper atmosphere, the Odyssey team has tried to include interesting surface features in them, as well. In Odyssey\u2019s latest horizon image, captured on May 2, Arsia Mons stands 12 miles (20 kilometers) high, roughly twice as tall as Earth\u2019s largest volcano, Mauna Loa, which rises 6 miles (9 kilometers) above the seafloor.<\/p>\n

The southernmost of the Tharsis volcanoes, Arsia Mons is the cloudiest of the three. The clouds form when air expands as it blows up the sides of the mountain and then rapidly cools. They are especially thick when Mars is farthest from the Sun, a period called aphelion. The band of clouds that forms across the planet\u2019s equator at this time of year is called the aphelion cloud belt, and it\u2019s on proud display in Odyssey\u2019s new panorama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds. And it didn\u2019t disappoint,\u201d said Jonathon Hill of Arizona State University in Tempe, operations lead for Odyssey\u2019s camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS.<\/p>\n

The THEMIS camera can view Mars in both visible and infrared light. The latter allows scientists to identify areas of the subsurface that contain water ice, which could be used by the first astronauts to land on Mars<\/a>. The camera can also image Mars\u2019 tiny moons<\/a>, Phobos and Deimos, allowing scientists to analyze their surface composition.<\/p>\n

More About Odyssey<\/strong><\/h3>\n

NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Odyssey Project for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA\u2019s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and collaborates with JPL on mission operations. THEMIS was built and is operated by Arizona State University in Tempe.<\/p>\n

For more about Odyssey:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/odyssey\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

News Media Contacts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

Karen Fox \/ Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov<\/a>\u00a0\/ molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

2025-077<\/p>\n

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