NASA Mars Image of the Day: Terby’s Layered Rocks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-665, 14 March 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Layered rock outcrops are common all across Mars, and the
Mars rover, Opportunity, has recently investigated some
layered rocks in Meridiani Planum.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows layered sedimentary rocks in northern Terby
Crater, located just north of the giant Hellas Basin
near 27.5°S, 285.8°W. Hundreds of layers are
exposed in a deposit several kilometers thick within
Terby. A history of events that shaped the northern
Hellas region is recorded in these rocks, just waiting
for a person or robot to investigate.
The picture covers an area
3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.