Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Lava Flow and Impact Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-333, 17 April 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture obtained in April 2003 shows the margin of a large lava flow south of Tharsis near 33.5°S, 137.5°W. Some of the lava broke out and poured into an adjacent crater formed by meteor impact. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide; the crater is more than twice the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. 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.

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