Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Small, Bouldery Crater
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-712, 30 April 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 relatively young impact crater located in southeastern Arabia Terra near 4.8°N, 313.9°W. It is about 1 kilometer (about six tenths of a mile) in diameter, roughly the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Indeed, the Arizona crater may once have looked very similar to this, but erosion on Earth has been more vigorous than on the modern Mars. Large boulders, many of them bigger than a typical house, can be seen in the ejecta blanket and on the crater floor. Fine, bright dust, common throughout Arabia Terra, has thinly mantled all but the steepest slopes. The image is is illuminated by sunlight from the left/upper left. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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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