NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dust-covered Flow
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1284, 17 November 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an ancient lava flow surface near the volcano, Ascraeus Mons. The volcanic material has been completely covered by thick accumulations of dust. An earlier accumulation of dust or ash was eroded by wind to form the sharp, nearly triangular hills and ridges seen on top of the flow surfaces. A small impact crater with bouldery ejecta has formed on top of the old flow material in the southern (lower) quarter of the image. |
Location near: 8.5°N, 110.5°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.
