NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Many-Layered Rock
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1563, 23 August 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rocks in a crater in the northwestern part of Schiaparelli basin. The repetition of these horizontal layers suggests the sediments could have been deposited in an ancient crater lake. |
Location near: 0.3°S, 345.6°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Autumn |
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.