Does Mars have more of a flat surface or a rough bumpy surface?
Excellent question! Mars actually has both bumpy and flat surfaces, which makes sense, because it would be hard for an entire planet to look exactly the same all over. Most of the northern hemisphere, called the “Northern Lowlands” is very flat and there are only a few rocks scattered over the surface. There is a lot of dust covering the surface on this part of the planet. On the other hand, most of the southern hemisphere, called the “Southern Highlands” is a very rough and bumpy surface. This part of Mars is very old (several billion years), and is heavily cratered. One more interesting thing about the Southern Highlands is that we see lots of channels running over the surface, which means there was probably water there at one point in time! The main mission of Odyssey is to look for other areas where water was (or still is!) present, and also, to help us understand why there are different types of surfaces all over the planet.
