NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gale Sedimentary Rocks
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1062, 15 April 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows outcroppings of layered, sedimentary rock in eastern Gale Crater. North-central Gale Crater is the site of a mound that is more than several kilometers thick and largely composed of sedimentary rocks that record a complex history of deposition and erosion. At one time, Gale Crater might have been completely filled and buried beneath the martian surface. |
Location near: 4.9°S, 221.6°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Winter |
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.
