NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Outcrops In Aram Chaos

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-881, 16 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Aram Chaos is the name of an approximately 275 km (171 mi)
diameter impact crater near Ares Vallis, roughly half way
between the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, site in
Meridiani Planum and the easternmost troughs of the
Valles Marineris. The Aram Chaos crater is partially
filled with a thick accumulation of layered rock. Erosion
has exposed light- and dark-toned rock materials in the
basin. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a small area exhibiting some of the rock outcrops
in Aram Chaos. The light-toned rocks may be sedimentary in
origin. This image is located
near 4.0°N, 20.6°W, and covers
an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.