NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Big and Little
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1518, 9 July 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of Syrtis Major Planum, dominated in this area by two impact craters of differing age. The large one is about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) in diameter, the smaller is about 250 meters (~820 feet) across. The smaller crater has a well-defined ejecta blanket and rays emanate outward from its center. The larger crater does not exhibit these features. The larger one is older, and its ejecta blanket and rays have been removed and degraded over time. |
| Location near: 5.4°N, 294.2°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Northern Spring |
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.
