NASA Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar Layer Remnants

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-646, 24 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The thin, dark, angular mesas in depressions in
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image are remnants of a layer of material that has been
largely stripped away from the region.
The picture is located in the south polar region
near 78.1°S, 272.2°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left; the
picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.