PIA02167: South Polar Landforms
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an area adjacent to Mar's south polar residual cap that hosts several intricate fracture networks.
 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:  672 x 1160 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1367  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA02167.tif (780.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA02167.jpg (251.2 kB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

8 February 2006
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an area adjacent to the south polar residual cap that hosts several intricate fracture networks. Each network consists of multiple fractures radiating from a central location. Their origin is not understood -- some investigators have speculated that these are sites of release of carbon dioxide from beneath the ground, but this explanation seems inadequate to explain all attributes of the features. MOC images have shown that these features have not been changing from year to year during the course of the MGS mission.

Location near: 87.1°S, 234.1°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:
2006-02-08