Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Mars Collecton
title:
Radar Slice Through Subsurface of Equatorial Deposits on Mars
Description:
This image combining a topographic map viewed obliquely (color portion of image) with a radargram of the subsurface (monochrome portion) shows features of mysterious Martian deposits named the Medusae Fossae Formation.

The westward-looking view includes the divide between Martian highlands on the south and lowlands on the north, spanning a range from about 12 degrees south latitude (left edge of image) to 5 degrees north latitude (right edge of image). The deposits of the Medusae Fossae Formation are found in the lowlands along the divide, in the center foreground. The radar sounder on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has revealed echoes from what is interpreted as a boundary between the overlying deposits and underlying lowland plains buried by these deposits.

The radar information presented here is from downward-looking radar observations by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS, jointly funded by NASA and the Italian Space Agency) as Mars Express flew a south-to-north path at about 188 degrees east longitude. The topographic map, using 1990s data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, extends from that transect to about 135 degrees east longitude.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA /Italian Space Agency/Univ. of Rome/Smithsonian
section:
Martian Terrain
facet_what:
Mars
facet_what:
Mars Express
facet_what:
MARSIS
facet_what:
Altimeter
facet_what:
Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding
facet_what:
Surveyor
facet_what:
Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
facet_what:
Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter (MGS)
facet_where:
Mars
facet_where:
Rome
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
UID:
SPD-MARS-express/gal lery/martianterrain/ 20071101_1148112cove r2s1.html
original url:

Radar Slice Through Subsurface of Equatorial Deposits on Mars