PIA04136: Mid-latitude Dunes
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows dark sand dunes on the floor of a southern mid-latitude impact crater on Mars. Craters are commonly the site of sand dunes, as sand may become trapped in these topographic depressions.
 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 1766 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1176  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04136.tif (1.188 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04136.jpg (143.8 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:

7 August 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark sand dunes on the floor of a southern mid-latitude impact crater. Craters are commonly the site of sand dunes, as sand may become trapped in these topographic depressions. In this case, the winds responsible for the dunes generally blew from the south/southeast (bottom/lower right),

Location near: 51.8°S, 105.5°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:
2005-08-07