NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Wind-Exhumed Crater
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-990, 2 February 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
The large circular feature in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image is the expression of a formerly filled and buried meteor crater, locked within sedimentary materials eroded by wind in the Memnonia Sulci region of Mars. The ridges and troughs in the image attest to the power of wind erosion to form yardangs. |
Location near: 1.6°N, 173.9°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Northern Summer |
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.
