NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Embaying Flow
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1582, 11 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark lava flows that have embayed—flowed up against and into—higher, more rugged terrain in the Cyclopia/Aethiopis region of Mars (southwest of Cerberus). Because they are relatively dark, these flows might have very little dust mantling them; these might be among the youngest lava flows on the planet. Nevertheless, the flow material does have a few small impact craters that formed in its surface, indicating that it is not extremely young. |
| Location near: 6.0°N, 220.0°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
