NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Tikhonravov’s Eyebrows

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-958, 1 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This red wide angle
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows Tikhonravov Crater in central Arabia Terra.
The crater is about 386 km (240 mi) in diameter and
presents two impact craters at its center that have
dark patches of sand in them, giving the impression
of pupils in two eyes. North (above) each of these two
craters lies a dark-toned patch of surface material,
providing the impression of eyebrows. M. K. Tikhonravov
was a leading Russian rocket engineer in the 20th
Century. The crater named for him, despite its large
size, is still partly buried, on its west side,
beneath the heavily cratered terrain of Arabia Terra.
The center of Tikhonravov is
near 13.5°N, 324.2°W. Sunlight illuminates
the scene from the upper left.

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.