NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Northern Plains Buried Craters
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-582, 22 December 2003
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows three circular features on the martian northern
plains near 70.7°N, 311.7°W. These circular features
are the locations of meteor impact craters that have been
buried beneath the plains. Much of the northern plains shares
this story, in which thousands of old craters have been
filled or partially filled and then thinly buried beneath
textured plains. The picture
covers an area 3 km (1.9 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.
