Skip Navigation: Avoid going through Home page links and jump straight to content

banner.gif

 

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera





"Sharks Teeth" -- Sand Dunes in Proctor Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-274, 31 January 2001

 

M19-00307psub_i1.gif
50% size (410 KBytes)
100% size (1.7 M Bytes)



Sometimes, pictures received from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) are "just plain pretty." This image, taken in early September 2000, shows a group of sand dunes at the edge of a much larger field of dark-toned dunes in Proctor Crater. Located at 47.9°S, 330.4°W, in the 170 km- (106 mi-) diameter crater named for 19th Century British astronomer Richard A. Proctor (1837-1888), the dunes shown here are created by winds blowing largely from the east/northeast. A plethora of smaller, brighter ripples covers the substrate between the dunes. Sunlight illuminates them from the upper left. Other dunes in Proctor Crater were highlighted in August 1999 in: "Dune Activity in Proctor Crater," MOC2-170.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems




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.

babylogo.gifTo MSSS Home Page