Mars Picture of the Day: Impact on Arsia Mons
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-394, 17 June 2003
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
In planetary science, impact craters are “tools of
the trade.” They are common to all of the solid-surfaced
objects in our Solar System, and are thus a good point
of reference to compare different planetary bodies. This
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a crater that is about the same size as the
famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, on the
North American continent. This crater, however, is
on the floor of the caldera–a large volcanic/collapse
crater–of a giant martian volcano,
Arsia Mons. This crater formed in volcanic rock,
whereas the one in Arizona formed in sedimentary
rock. Large, house-sized boulders dot the raised
crater rim.
This image is near
10.0°S, 120.4°W. The picture
is illuminated 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.