NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Crater Floor Bands

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-634, 12 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The somewhat concentric bands in this
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image may be an expression of eroded layered material.
The crater in which these occur is
found at middle southern latitude near
the west rim of the giant Hellas impact basin.
The picture is located
near 36.6°S, 321.2°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.