NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Craters and Streaks
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1419, 1 April 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows two impact craters of nearly equal size, plus their associated wind streaks. These occur in far eastern Chryse Planitia. The wind streaks point toward the southwest (lower left), indicating that the responsible winds blew from the northeast. One of the two craters is shallower than the other, and has a suite of large, windblown ripples on its floor. The shallower crater with the ripples is probably older than the other, deeper crater. |
| Location near: 20.6°N, 30.1°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Winter |
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.
