NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Caught in the Act
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1205, 5 September 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dust devil caught in the act of creating a dark streak on the floor of the large, south mid-latitude crater, Mendel. Dozens of other dark streaks mark the paths of earlier dust devils. Dust devil streaks at southern middle and high latitudes are seasonal features; they are erased each winter by thin deposits of dust and frost, and they are re-created each spring and summer by new dust devils. |
Location near: 58.9°S, 199.4°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Spring |
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.
