Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Old Arabian Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-376, 30 May 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an old meteor impact crater that was once buried and was then partially-exhumed from within the layered rocks on the floor of a much larger crater in eastern Arabia Terra. The erosion processes that began to exhume the crater, however, stopped some time ago, because today the entire area is covered by a blanket of dust. Avalanches of this dust have created dark streaks on the walls of the partly exhumed crater. This April 2003 image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is located near 20.9°N, 320.8°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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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