NASA's Odyssey Orbiter Captures Never Before seen View of the Martian Horizon ... plus Guest

NASA have released a picture of the Martian horizon never seen before taken by its elderly Mars orbiter Odyssey , Odyssey has been up there since Y2K but NASA has kept her operational and she's still delivering the goods , "No Mars spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before." , the images were taken from just 250 miles above the Martian surface – that's about the same altitude as the International Space Station is above Earth , the image shows the horizon , dust and clouds.

The image was captured using Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, and the main reason it took so long to coordinate is because THEMIS is in a fixed position on the orbiter, and points straight down at Mars from the belly of the spacecraft.

That's because THEMIS is used for mapping the Martian surface… usually, anyway.

To see the Mars horizon, scientists here on Earth had to send commands to physically tilt the entire Odyssey orbiter 90 degrees, pointing THEMIS at the direction of the rim of the horizon.

They also had to keep the spacecraft that way for an entire orbit so that THEMIS had time to take the series of 10 images that were stitched together to create the panorama.

It was nailbiting. The best position had the spacecraft's antenna pointed away from Earth for the duration, which meant that Odyssey was out of contact with Earth for the hours the project took.
www.sciencealert.com...

As an added bonus Odyssey also saw Phobos mooching by.


Great job chaps.

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

a reply to: Cre8chaos79

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

I think religions would be rather bleak...

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Cre8chaos79

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

I think religions would be rather bleak...

Or even stronger when you look at the grand majesty of it all. To think this beauty in the galaxy is by chance and luck.....

Wow, looks like Mars is also flat! cool

a reply to: gortex


The absence of oxygen is clearly visible,
Elon it needs an upgrade

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Cre8chaos79

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

I think religions would be rather bleak...

Of course, "belief" is a choice, be it a higher power or captures from "outer space".

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

Turtles all the way down bruh.

originally posted by: theatreboy

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Cre8chaos79

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

I think religions would be rather bleak...

Or even stronger when you look at the grand majesty of it all. To think this beauty in the galaxy is by chance and luck.....

Ha, ha, ha. Explain what you think beauty is, or chance and luck for that matter! Subjective abstractions like these are meaningless IMO.

Phobos is such an adorable little quirky potato moon.

Mars rocks.

No pun intended.

SPAM

a reply to: gortex

Crisps all around for all!

Thx

Very cool image! BTW, this is wildespace, I seem to have lost my password and email registration here, so had to create a new one

a reply to: wildespace2

Hi wildespace , send a PM to DTOM she can reactivate your old account.

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Cre8chaos79

If people who discovered these planets originally could see what we can see now!

I think religions would be rather bleak...

All these structures and celestial objects are creations of God my child.

a reply to: Rosby123

I don't disagree, we just have a vastly diffrent approach to what God is and how it does it's thing.
I wouldn't even bother to explain that to a child...

originally posted by: GENERAL EYES
Phobos is such an adorable little quirky potato moon.

Mars rocks.

No pun intended.

There are rumours about phobos and deimos.