NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Exhuming Crater
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1112, 4 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a circular feature on the martian northern plains. It was once a crater formed by meteoritic impact. It was completely filled and buried by and within layered material. Later, the layered materials have begun to be eroded away, re-exposing the old crater rims in the process. |
Location near: 44.9°N, 264.7°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
