NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Chryse “Alien Head”

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-983, 26 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an impact crater in Chryse Planitia, not
too far from the Viking 1 lander site, that to seems
to resemble a bug-eyed head. The two odd depressions at
the north end of the crater (the “eyes”) may have formed
by wind or water erosion. This region has been modified
by both processes, with water action occurring in the
distant past via floods that poured across
western Chryse Planitia from Maja Valles, and wind action
common occurrence in more recent history. This crater is located
near 22.5°N, 47.9°W.
The 150 meter scale bar is about 164 yards long.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower 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.