Hebes Mensa

This colorization is the result of a collaboration between THEMIS team members at Cornell University and space artist Don Davis, who is an expert on true-color renderings of planetary and astronomical objects. Davis began with calibrated and co-registered THEMIS VIS multi-band radiance files produced by the Cornell group. Using as a guide true-color imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope and his own personal experience at Mt. Wilson and other observatories, he performed a manual color balance to match more closely the colors of previous visual Mars observations. He also did some manual smoothing along with other image processing to mimimize the effects of residual scattered light in the images. The result is a view of Mars that invites comparisons to Earth; possibly a scene one might observe out the window on a flight over the southwest United States. Notice the interior layerd deposits (ILD) in the middle of the image as well as the deep spur-and-gulley erosion features cutting downward across the fine layers of ILD.
Initial image processing and calibration by THEMIS team members J. Bell, T. McConnochie, and D. Savransky at Cornell University; additional processing and final color balance by space artist Don Davis.