Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Wind-Exhumed Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-990, 2 February 2005


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The large circular feature in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image is the expression of a formerly filled and buried meteor crater, locked within sedimentary materials eroded by wind in the Memnonia Sulci region of Mars. The ridges and troughs in the image attest to the power of wind erosion to form yardangs.
Location near: 1.6°N, 173.9°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Northern Summer


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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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