NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Pitted Plain
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1476, 28 May 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a chain of collapse pits on a dust-mantled, lava-covered plain northeast of Ascraeus Mons—one of the giant volcanoes located in the Tharsis region of Mars. Pit chains are associated with collapse which may be driven by several processes including, but not limited to, crustal extension owing to tectonic processes and the collapse of the roof of a lava tube. |
| Location near: 14.8°N, 99.1°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Winter |
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.
