PIA02914: Repetition
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a mid-summer view of layered terrain in the south polar region of Mars.
 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 1602 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1399  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA02914.tif (1.078 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA02914.jpg (331.7 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:

12 March 2006
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a mid-summer view of layered terrain in the south polar region of Mars. The general hypothesis that has been around since the Mariner missions to Mars in the late 1960s and early 1970s is that the layered material in the polar regions is composed of some combination of dust and ice in unknown proportions. Alternatively, the layers might be ancient sedimentary rock, perhaps protected from erosion by millennia of seasonal ice caps covering the region for, roughly, half a Mars year.

Location near: 80.1°S, 259.7°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:
2006-03-12