NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Martian “Brain”

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-717, 5 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Most middle-latitude craters on Mars have strange landforms
on their floors. Often, the floors have pitted and convoluted
features that lack simple explanation. In this case,
the central part of the crater floor shown in
this 2004 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image bears some resemblance to the folded nature of a
brain. Or not. It depends upon the “eye of the beholder,”
perhaps. The light-toned “ring” around the “brain” feature
is more easily explained–windblown ripples and dunes.
The crater occurs
near 33.1°S, 91.2°W, and is illuminated from the
upper left. The picture
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.

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.