Status Report

NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Layered Rock in West Candor

By SpaceRef Editor
March 11, 2004
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Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-662, 11 March 2004




NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

West Candor Chasma, one of the troughs of the vast
Valles Marineris system, presents some of the largest
areas covered by outcrops of light-toned, layered rock
on Mars.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an example located in west Candor
near 6.1°S, 76.7°W. Hundreds of layers are exposed
in this area. The dark ripples
are believed to be just that–dark patches of windblown sediment
shaped into rippled forms.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the high
resolution image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.

SpaceRef staff editor.