NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Platy Flows
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1110, 2 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows some of the platy flow material in the Zephyria region of Mars. The materials have impact craters in them, suggesting that they are composed of solid rock rather than ice. Some investigators have proposed that these materials are part of a vast ice-covered lake or sea, but the impact craters formed in the material suggest that it is not ice. Other investigators have cited evidence for an origin by very fluid lavas; some of the evidence includes small volcanoes scattered throughout the region. |
Location near: 3.7°S, 195.5°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern 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.
