ASU Mars camera takes prize-winning photo

An eerie photo of Martian sand dunes engulfing an impact crater won Second Prize in Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine's 2010 photo contest. The photo was taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), designed and operated at ASU.

Philip Christensen, Regents' professor of geological sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration is the THEMIS camera's designer and principal investigator.

Says Christensen, "I've been reading Aviation Week since I was 20, so it's a real thrill for me to see one of our photos in the magazine."

The photo appears on page 42 of the Dec. 20/27, 2010 issue.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University