Mars Picture of the Day: Eroded Sedimentary Rock

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-372, 26 May 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This high resolution
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
shows eroded, layered sedimentary rock exposures in an
unnamed western Arabia Terra crater at 8°N, 7°W.
The dark material is windblown sand; much of the erosion
of these layers may have also been caused by wind.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
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.