NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Aeolis Yardangs
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1340, 12 January 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a group of tapered ridges, known as yardangs, which formed by wind erosion of a relatively easily-eroded material, most likely sedimentary rock or volcanic ash deposits containing some fraction of sand-sized grains. |
Location near: 6.1°S, 210.8°W |
Image width: ~2 km (~1.2 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.
