NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Crater in Syrtis Major
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-527, 28 October 2003
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows a meteor impact crater in central Syrtis
Major. This is a relatively young crater; its ejecta
patterns are very well preserved and have not been
eroded away by wind or buried by fine sediment.
The crater is located near
8.5°N, 295.2°W.
The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is
illuminated by sunlight from the left/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.