NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Eroded Cratered Highlands

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-472, 3 September 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This August 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows the remains of two former meteor impact craters in
northeastern Arabia Terra. The circular mesa toward the northeast
(upper left) corner of the image was once a crater that became
filled with material. Later, erosion stripped away the surrounding
terrain, but left the filled crater behind as a mesa. The larger circular
feature in this image is the eroded remains of another meteor crater; its
rims and ejecta have been eroded away, and its north/northwest (left/upper
left) rim has been completely removed. The processes that have eroded
terrain in northeastern Arabia are unknown, but probably, at least, involved
deflation by wind. This picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across
and is located near 26.9°N, 301.6°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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.