NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Aeolis Buttes
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1439, 21 April 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a group of dust-covered buttes in the Aeolis region of Mars. Dozens of dark slope streaks—created by dry avalanches of dust—extend from a variety of elevations toward the base of each butte. Large, dust-covered, windblown ripples surround the group and occupy some of the low-lying areas between individual buttes. |
Location near: 1.5°S, 202.9°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Southern Summer |
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.