The data gathered by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft "is going to revolutionize our mapping of the planet and our idea of the planet's geology," said Philip Christensen, lead author and THEMIS Principal Investigator who teaches at Arizona State University.

"It will keep Mars scientists busy for the next 20 years trying to understand the processes that have produced this landscape," Christensen added.

THEMIS supplies images of temperatures and infrared radiation on Mars' surface offering greater information on geological details than any other equipment studying the planet's surface, researchers said.

Among the new information getting attention is the presence of different atmospheric layers on Mars' surface which indicate major environmental changes on the planet.

"It's very difficult to say exactly what happened in any particular place, but what we've found is that in many places on Mars it hasn't just been the same old thing happening for year after year for billions of years," the researcher added, explaining his work in the edition of Science dated June 6.

His team's unexpected finding: accumulations of loose rock are common on Martian hillsides.

"If those rocks had been made a billion years ago, they'd be covered with dust. This shows a dynamic Mars, it's an active place," he added.

SPACE.WIRE