NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Autumn in Argyre

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-891, 26 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows terrain in northwestern Argyre Planitia during southern autumn in August 2004. Several mesas stand high above a rippled plain. Argyre is a very ancient and heavily modified impact basin. The ripple patterns were probably formed from windblown sediment. This image is located near 47.1°S, 45.6°W. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. 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.