NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ring Things
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1580, 9 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a suite of rings on the martian northern plains. Each ring marks the location of a filled and buried (or, in some cases, mostly-filled and nearly-buried) impact crater. The dark spots on some of the rings are boulders—or clusters of smaller rocks—associated with the buried craters. |
| Location near: 68.7°N, 288.6°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Summer |
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.
