NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Scrambled Hellas
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1601, 30 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an example of the extremely odd, seemingly scrambled layered rocks exposed by erosion near the deepest part of the deepest basin on Mars, Hellas. This pattern of eroded, and perhaps deformed layers was once exposed to the martian surface, then buried, and more recently exposed again. The story behind these layers is not really understood; some members of the MOC team have—for nearly 9 years now—taken to calling these features, “taffy-pull terrain”. |
| Location near: 43.1°S, 307.3°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern 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.
