PIA04150: Polar Cap Pits
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows kidney bean-shaped pits, and other pits, formed by erosion in a landscape of frozen carbon dioxide in the martian south polar residual cap.
 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 3243 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1186  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04150.tif (6.648 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04150.jpg (549.9 kB)  

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:

17 August 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows kidney bean-shaped pits, and other pits, formed by erosion in a landscape of frozen carbon dioxide. This images shows one of about a dozen different patterns that are common in various locations across the martian south polar residual cap, an area that has been receiving intense scrutiny by the MGS MOC this year, because it is visible on every orbit and in daylight for most of 2005.

Location near: 86.9°S, 6.9°W
Image width: width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Spring

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-08-17