Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
A Martian "Monument Valley"--Mesas on the Elysium Plains
Original Caption Released with Image:
This recent Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows mesas and smaller buttes that occur on the Elysium Plains, approximately 300 kilometers (~185 miles) south of the Cerberus region in the Martian eastern hemisphere.

Like the world-famous Monument Valley located in the Navajo Nation on the border of Arizona and Utah, this "Martian Monument Valley" consists of a series of mesas and buttes that have formed by erosion of layered bedrock. The uneroded rock forms a flat upland at the top of the image. The number of mesas and buttes decreases toward the bottom of the image, but their presence indicates that the rock in which they formed was once more extensive and covered the entire scene. Small dunes form parallel ridges on the lowland between many of the mesas near the top of the image. The image covers an area that is 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) wide and is illuminated from 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, CA. 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, CA and Denver, CO.
Addition Date:
2000-06-07
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/MSSS
Produced By:
Malin Space Science Systems
Mission:
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Spacecraft:
Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
Target Name:
Mars
Is a satellite of:
Sol (our sun)
Instrument:
Mars Orbiter Camera
Product Size:
559 samples x 1820 lines
Primary Data Set:
MGS EDRs
Producer ID:
MOC2-131
MRPS95033
P50423
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
Mars
facet_what:
Surveyor
facet_what:
Mars Observer
facet_what:
Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter (MGS)
facet_what:
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where:
Denver
facet_where:
Mars
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Utah
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Image #:
PIA02046
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA02046
orignial url:

A Martian "Monument Valley"--Mesas on the Elysium Plains