NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Cerberus Fossae Pits

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-841, 6 September 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The Cerberus Fossae are a grouping of narrow troughs
formed by extension and cracking of the martian crust
in the region southeast of the Elysium volcanoes.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a small line of collapsed pits that follow
the trend of the regional Cerberus Fossae troughs.
These aligned pits show the location of a fault line that
runs through the plains and cuts the low, rounded hill
at the left, center of the image. This area is located
near 7.5°N, 191.7°W.
The image covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates this scene from the lower left.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.