Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Remnant Layered Rocks
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-772, 29 June 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 suite of small yardangs--wind eroded hills--on the plains immediately west of Meridiani Planum. These yardangs are the remains of layered, sedimentary rock that once covered this area. The few craters visible in this 3 km (1.9 mi) -wide scene are all exhumed from beneath the rocks that comprise the yardang hills. The image is located near 0.4°S, 7.2°W. Sunlight illuminates the picture 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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