9 December 2004
A century ago, the name Percival Lowell and the planet Mars were intimately linked through his popular writings about canals built by intelligent beings on the fourth planet. Today, a crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars is named for Lowell, who usually observed the planet from a hilltop in Flagstaff, Arizona. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image, acquired in October 2004, shows a portion of a sand dune field in western Lowell Crater. The dunes are located near 51.3°S, 82.5°W. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.