NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Bright Layer Outcrops

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-816, 12 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows outcroppings of a light-toned rock layer on the
lower slopes of buttes, hills, and massifs within one of
the depressions of the Labyrinthus Noctis (Labyrinth of Night)
system of the western Valles Marineris. The layer was once
continuous across the area. The image is located
near 7.5°S, 96.1°W, and
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. The
scene is illuminated by sunlight 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.