NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Rippled Labyrinth
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1579, 8 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned ripples covering the floors of troughs in the Adamas Labyrinthus region of northern Elysium Planitia. The ripple crests generally run perpendicular to the trend of each trough, indicating that the dominant winds involved in shaping these ripples blow up and down, through the troughs, independent of the direction of winds that blow across the plains outside the troughs. |
| Location near: 32.7°N, 251.1°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Spring |
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.
