NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Lyot Crater in Winter

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-610, 19 January 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This somewhat oblique
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
red wide angle view of Lyot Crater and the mesas of the
Deuteronilus Mensae was acquired in January 2004 on
the day after the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit,
landed in Gusev Crater on the other side of the planet.
It is winter in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and
winter for Lyot Crater means clouds. The brighter features
in the atmosphere above the surface in this image are
clouds. Lyot Crater is about 236 km (~147 mi.) in diameter.
The center of this image is
near 48.5°N, 331.0°W, and is illuminated
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.