NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Banded Terrain in East Hellas

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-460, 22 August 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
narrow angle camera image shows banded terrain in easternmost
Hellas Planitia, between the distal ends of Dao and Harmakhis valleys.
These bands probably indicate the location of eroded, layered
bedrock that has been covered by a mantling deposit that, itself,
became eroded to form the very small pits and bumps that pervade
the region. This picture is located near
41.1°S, 275.0°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/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.