THEMIS Image of the Day, December 22, 2016. Today’s false color image shows part of Gale Crater. Gale Crater is the home of the Curiosity Rover. The channel descending from the rim rocks at top is called Peace Vallis, and a stream once flowed through the channel. The stream washed sand and gravel down onto the floor of Gale Crater, making a large, smooth area — which scientists call an alluvial fan — in the center of this image. Curiosity landed on part of the fan.
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
More THEMIS Images of the Day by geological topic.