Mars Picture of the Day: Lava Flow and Impact Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-333, 17 April 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture
obtained in April 2003 shows the margin of a large lava flow
south of Tharsis near 33.5°S, 137.5°W. Some of the
lava broke out and poured into an adjacent crater formed
by meteor impact.
The picture covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide; the crater is more than twice the
size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
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.