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PIA07118: North Polar Layers
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an exposure of finely-detailed layers in the martian north polar region. The north polar ice cap, which is made up of frozen water, is underlain by a thick sequence of layers.
 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 1152 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-929  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA07118.tif (775.1 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA07118.jpg (194.4 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:

3 December 2004
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an exposure of finely-detailed layers in the martian north polar region. The polar ice cap, which is made up of frozen water (whereas the south polar cap is mostly frozen carbon dioxide), is underlain by a thick sequence of layers. Some have speculated that these layers may record the history of changes in martian climate during the past few hundreds of millions of years. This picture is located near 86.0°N, 30.2°W, and covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2004-12-03