NASA Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar “Poodle”

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-422, 15 July 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Have you ever stared up at the clouds in the sky and
seen the shapes of animals, people, or objects? Sometimes
when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
team is looking at newly-returned pictures from Mars, the same thing
happens. This is a picture of pits and scarps in the frozen south polar
carbon dioxide ice cap. Sunlight illuminates the scene from
the upper right. At the bottom of the picture is a feature
that resembles a long, thin poodle; its head faces to the left,
the tail to the right. This picture is located near
86.9°S, 55.8°W.

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.