NASA MARS Orbiter: Tenth Anniversary Image from THEMIS

The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an unprecedented full decade of observing Mars from orbit.

THEMIS captured this image on Feb. 19, 2012, 10 years to the day after the camera recorded its first view of Mars.

This image covers an area 11 by 32 miles (19 by 52 kilometers) in the Nepenthes Mensae region north of the Martian equator.

The view depicts a knobby landscape where the southern highlands are breaking up as the terrain descends into the northern lowlands.

Odyssey, launched in 2001, has worked at Mars longer than any mission in history.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

THEMIS was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.

For more information about Mars Odyssey, visit mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey . For more about THEMIS, see themis.asu.edu/ .

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU