PIA03266: Polar Summer
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows eroding mesas of frozen carbon dioxide in the martian south polar residual cap. During the summer season, the scarps that bound each pit and mesa in the south polar region become dark as carbon dioxide sublimes away.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
 Instrument:  Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) 
 Product Size:  2048 x 3120 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1327  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03266.tif (6.396 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03266.jpg (1.14 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

30 December 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows eroding mesas of frozen carbon dioxide in the martian south polar residual cap. During the summer season, the scarps that bound each pit and mesa in the south polar region become dark as carbon dioxide sublimes away. The darkening might result from the roughening of the surfaces from which ice is subliming, or from the concentration of trace amounts of dust on these slopes, or both.

Location near: 84.7°S, 48.2°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Summer

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-12-30