NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Layered Remnant

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-619, 28 January 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This southern summer Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a remnant of layered sedimentary material that was once
much more extensive, covering a vast intercrater area near
69.1°S, 207.5°W. These layers have been protected from
being completely removed by erosion, in part, because of the ancient
meteor impact crater located at the lower left. The dark lines that
squiggle and streak across this scene were most likely formed by passing
dust devils that disrupted or removed some of the thin layer of dust
coating this terrain. The picture covers an area approximately 3 km
(1.9 mi) wide; sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.