15 February 2004
Calling out across millions of miles of space, the compelling dark sand dunes and light-toned sedimentary rock outcrops of Becquerel Crater and dozens of other layered rock sites on Mars beg for further scientific investigation. Layered rocks record the history of a place; the younger layers are above the older ones. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows some of the dunes and layered rocks in Becquerel, a ~170 km (~106 mi) wide crater in western Arabia Terra. Wind has blown the dunes toward the southwest (lower left). The image is located near 21.5°N, 8.6°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.