NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Intersection
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1488, 9 June 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a small portion of a dust-covered plain directly north of Labyrinthus Noctis which is cut by three linear troughs. The two long troughs running diagonally from the lower left (southwest) to the upper right (northeast) are connected by a third, shorter trough. Boulders derived from erosion of layered rock in the trough walls are seen perched on the sloping sidewalls and resting on the trough floors among giant windblown ripples. |
Location near: 0.2°N, 105.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper 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.