NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Rocks Exposed on Slope in Aram Chaos

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-550, 20 November 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This spectacular vista of sedimentary rocks outcropping
on a slope in Aram Chaos was acquired by the
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
on 14 November 2003. Dark piles of coarse talus have
come down the slopes as these materials continue to
erode over time. Note that there are no small meteor
impact craters in this image, indicating that erosion
of these outcrops has been recent, if not on-going. This area is
located near 2.8°S, 20.5°W. The 200 meter scale bar
is about 656 feet across. Sunlight illuminates the scene
from the lower right.

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.