NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ancient Bedforms

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-822, 18 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows groupings of large ripple-like windblown bedforms on
the floor of a large crater (larger than the image shown here)
in Sinus Sabaeus, south of Schiaparelli Basin. These ripple-like
features are much larger than typical wind ripples on Earth, but
smaller than typical sand dunes on either planet. Like most of
the other ripple-like bedforms in Sinus Sabaeus, they are
probably ancient and no longer mobile. Dark streaks on the
substrate between the bedforms were formed by passing
dust devils. This image is located
near 13.0°S, 343.7°W.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across
and 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.