NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Rock Outcrops near Hellas

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-872, 7 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows light-toned, layered rock outcrops in a
pitted and eroded region just northeast of Hellas Planitia.
The light-toned materials are most likely sedimentary rocks
deposited early in martian history (but long after the Hellas
Basin formed by a giant asteroid or comet impact). The scene
also includes a plethora of large dark-toned, windblown ripples.
The image is located
near 27.2°S, 280.7°W, and covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.