NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Light-toned Terraces
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1477, 29 May 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops in northwest Schiaparelli Basin. The layers are all of about the same thickness (a few meters or less) and appear to have similar properties. They were likely deposited in an episodic or cyclic manner, perhaps in an underwater setting. |
| Location near: 1.2°S, 346.3°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern 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.
