NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Layers and Streaks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-932, 6 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an outcrop of light-toned layered rock and
a plethora of dark streaks on the floor of a crater in
southern Noachis Terra. The streaks were created by
dozens of dust devils which disrupted and perhaps
removed some of the thin layer of dust that coats the
surface. This view is located
near 55.5°S, 333.4°W. The scene is illuminated
by sunlight from the lower right. The 500 meter scale
bar is approximately 547 yards long.

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.