Floating in orbit above Mars, NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter captured a panorama of the Red Planet’s biggest volcanoes, Arsia Mons, peeking over a sea of clouds.
The picturesque moment offers an exceptionally rare view of a Martian volcano, showing the landform at an angle in space that captures the planet’s horizon.
“We picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds.
In it, Arsia Mons stands 12 miles (20 kilometers) high and measures 70 miles (450 km) in diameter.
Arsia Mons is also one of Mars’ cloudiest volcanoes and the southernmost of the three Tharsis volcanoes that form Tharsis Montes, or Tharsis Mountains.
A panorama of Arsia Mons, one of the largest volcanoes on the Red Planet, peeking over a sea of clouds was taken by NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter while it was floating in orbit above the planet. Because the landform is angled in space and captures the planet’s horizon, the picturesque moment provides an incredibly rare view of a Martian volcano.
We chose Arsia Mons in the hopes that the summit would break through the early morning clouds. “And it didn’t let us down,” said Jonathan Hill, the operations lead for Odyssey’s camera and a mission planner at Arizona State University’s Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, Mars Space Flight Facility, in a statement. Both visible and infrared light can be seen on Mars using THEMIS.
Odyssey, which was launched in 2001, has spent more than 20 years orbiting Mars and conducting research on the planet’s surface. However, the orbiter started capturing stunning panoramic views of the Martian horizon in 2023. The orbiter rotates a full 90 degrees on its side because THEMIS is unable to pivot to capture these breathtaking views. In this manner, it captured the “limb” of Mars, which is the edge of the planet’s horizon. Since 2023, THEMIS has observed four limbs.
Just before sunrise on May 2, Odyssey took the picture. Within it, Arsia Mons is 70 miles (450 km) in diameter and 12 miles (20 km) high. In contrast, the tallest volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, is 75 miles (121 km) in diameter and 6 miles (9 km) above the seafloor.
One of the cloudiest volcanoes on Mars, Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three Tharsis volcanoes that make up the Tharsis Montes, or Tharsis Mountains. Water ice clouds frequently encircle these mountains, especially in the early morning hours. As air rushes up the mountainside and then quickly cools, it expands, creating clouds.
