NASA Mars Picture of the Day: North Mid-latitude Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-427, 20 July 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Craters in the middle latitudes of Mars often have
strangely-textured floors. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image of a crater near
40.2°N, 184.5°W provides an example. The original
crater has been somewhat eroded and much of its interior
has been filled with sediment since it formed. The
origin of the strange texture is unknown; speculations
about most mid-latitude textures tend to focus on the
idea that, somehow, subliming ground ice may have been
involved. The texture on the floor of the crater is
similar to, but not quite the same as, the texture on the
nearby surfaces to the north and south of the crater.
This picture covers an area 1.4 km (0.9 mi) wide.
Sunlight illuminates the scene 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.