Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Martian Meteor Crater
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-642, 20 February 2004
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a fairly young meteor impact crater on Mars that is about the same size (~ 1 kilometer; 0.62 miles) as the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Like the Arizona crater, boulders of ejected bedrock can be seen on the crater's ejecta blanket and in the crater itself. This crater is located in the Aethiopis region of Mars near 4.7°N, 224.1°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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