NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Chain Gang
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1546, 6 August 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a chain of clustered and battered craters. These formed by secondary impact. That is, somewhere to the south (beyond the bottom of this image), a large impact crater formed. When this occurred, material ejected from the crater was thrown tens to hundreds of kilometers away. This material then impacted the martian surface, forming clusters and chains of smaller craters. |
| Location near: 15.8°N, 35.6°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.
