THEMIS, or, as its creators at Arizona State University call it, the Thermal Emission Imaging System, made its 60,000th trip around Mars this year. The infrared camera, which has been hitchhiking aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey since 2001, has taken nearly 400,000 images of the Red Planet. In the process, it has saved a landing rover from dashing to pieces in a field of giant boulders by finding it a safe place to set down, and it has helped scientists discover old lakes and gullies carved by melting snow, among other things. You can see what THEMIS sees in real time on ASU's website. Watching the cratered landscape roll by is surreal.
201 East Orange Mall, Tempe480-965-1790
www.themis.asu.edu