NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Sirenum Fossae Troughs
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1257, 21 October 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows two troughs/depressions formed along the trend of the Sirenum Fossae, a suite of very extensive troughs formed by faults that are radial to the giant Tharsis Bulge. As the Tharsis region bulged outward, adjacent terrain expanded and formed a series of long, extensional fault systems. |
Location near: 26.4°S, 142.4°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Southern 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.
