NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Electric Polygons
2006.07.14.S1701282.jpg
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1523, 14 July 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows frost-enhanced polygonal features on the martian northern plains. A week or two before this springtime image was acquired, the entire surface was covered by carbon dioxide frost. As spring advances, the north polar seasonal frost cap edge retreats. It retreated through the area shown here, leaving only remnants of frost in the cracks and troughs that bound polar polygonal features. Within a few weeks of acquisition of this image, the scene would have been completely frost-free. |
| Location near: 68.5°N, 191.8°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern 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.
