NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ariadnes Colles

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-690, 8 April 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The Ariadnes Colles is a cluster of light-toned knobs, mesas,
and hills in Terra Cimmeria
near 35°S, 188°W.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an example of these landforms. They might be the
eroded remnants of material deposited in an
extremely ancient impact basin.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.