NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Becquerel Beckons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-637, 15 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Calling out across millions of miles of space, the compelling
dark sand dunes and light-toned sedimentary rock outcrops
of Becquerel Crater and dozens of other layered rock sites
on Mars beg for further scientific investigation. Layered
rocks record the history of a place; the younger layers are
above the older ones.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows some of the dunes and layered rocks in Becquerel,
a ~170 km (~106 mi) wide crater in western Arabia Terra.
Wind has blown the dunes toward the southwest (lower left).
The image is located
near 21.5°N, 8.6°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the image
covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.