Streamlined Island in Marte Vallis (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)

Today's APOD is a frame taken by the NASA - Mars Odyssey Orbiter which shows us a so-called "Streamlined Island" that formed in the Northern Channel known as Marte Vallis. This Martian Channel is about 185 Km long and it has been identified as an Outflow Channel, carved in a quite distant geological past by the action of catastrophic releases of Water from Aquifers existing beneath the Martian Surface.

Orbit Number: 47605
Latitude: 12,4105° North
Longitude: 182,426° East
Instrument: VIS
Captured: September, 6th, 2012

This frame (which is an Original Mars Odyssey Orbiter b/w frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 16507) has been additionally processed and then colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Mars Odyssey Orbiter and then looked down, towards the Surface of Mars), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.