Mars Picture of the Day: Dust Mantle near Pavonis Mons
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-356, 10 May 2003
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
shows a thick mantle of dust covering lava flows north of Pavonis
Mons so well that the flows are no longer visible. Flows are known
to occur here because of the proximity to the volcano, and such flows
normally have a very rugged surface. Fine dust, however, has settled
out of the atmosphere over time and obscured the flows from view.
The cliff at the top of the image faces north (up), the cliff in
the middle of the image faces south (down), and the rugged slope
at the bottom of the image faces north (up). The dark streak at the
center-left was probably caused by an avalanche of dust sometime in
the past few decades.
The image is located
near
4.1°N, 111.3°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
right/lower right.
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.
