NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Peridier Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-450, 12 August 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
wide angle red instrument captured this autumn view of Peridier
Crater on August 6, 2003. The crater is about
100 km (62 mi.) in diameter and located at 25.7°N, 276.2°W.
It was named for French astronomer Julien Peridier (1882-1967).
In this Mercator map-projected view, north is up and east
is to the right. The dark feature on the southwest floor of the
crater is known from high resolution MOC images to be a field
of windblown dunes. Finer, dark-toned sediment has been blown
out of the dune field and settled on the crater rim and just
outside the crater to the southwest. 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.