Status Report

NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Secondary Craters

By SpaceRef Editor
October 7, 2005
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Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1243, 7 October 2005


Medium-sized view of MGS MOC Picture of the Day, updated daily


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems



This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a cluster of craters in far western Arabia Terra. The crater cluster is oriented along a line that runs nearly east-west (left-right) across the scene. Clusters of craters positioned along a line like this are secondary craters — that is, they formed as the result of a much larger meteor, asteroid, or cometary impact somewhere else in the region. These craters do not form from the object that impacted Mars to form the larger, primary crater; these are the product of the impact of the rocks and debris thrown out by the larger impact.

Location near: 14.9°N, 19.3°W

Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)

Illumination from: lower left

Season: Northern Autumn


Tips for Media Use

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.

SpaceRef staff editor.