PIA03672: Becquerel's Layers
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops in Becquerel Crater in the western Arabia Terra region on 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:  1024 x 2576 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1342  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03672.tif (2.641 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03672.jpg (870.7 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:

14 January 2006
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops in Becquerel Crater in the western Arabia Terra region. The crater may once have hosted a lake, into which these sediments were deposited. Although the fine, detailed layering in Becquerel was not known until the MGS MOC first began to image these materials in 1999, the presence of a grossly-layered, light-toned feature was known from Viking orbiter images and was speculated from those data to possibly represent evidence for the presence of a former lake.

Location near: 21.5°N, 8.2°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: lower left
Season: Northern Winter

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2006-01-14