NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Devil-Streaked Plain
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1378, 19 February 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark streaks on a plain south of the giant impact basin, Hellas Planitia. The streaks map the routes traveled by dozens of individual southern spring and early summer dust devils. |
Location near: 68.4°S, 296.1°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Summer |
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.