Mars Picture of the Day: Aram and Iani Chaos

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-344, 28 April 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
mosaic was constructed from data acquired by the MOC red wide
angle camera. The large, circular feature in the upper left is
Aram Chaos, an ancient impact crater filled with layered sedimentary
rock that was later disrupted and eroded to form a blocky, “chaotic”
appearance. To the southeast of Aram Chaos, in the lower right of
this picture, is Iani Chaos. The light-toned patches amid the large
blocks of Iani Chaos are known from higher-resolution MOC images to
be layered, sedimentary rock outcrops.
The picture center is near
0.5°N, 20°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
left/upper left.

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.