Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Crater Cluster

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-521, 22 October 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a cluster of impact craters in northwest Arabia Terra near 30.4°N, 13.7°W. This group of craters may have formed either by secondary impact of debris thrown out of a larger meteor crater, or by the break-up and impact of many fragments from a single incoming object. The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the lower left.

Tips for Media Use

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.

To MSSS Home Page