PIA08089: South Polar Autumn
This NASA Mars Global Surveyor image shows a portion of the south polar residual cap; darkened edges of the pits and mesas are evidence of the removal, by sublimation, of frozen carbon dioxide during the recent martian summer.
 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 1064 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1440  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA08089.tif (716 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA08089.jpg (174.2 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:

22 April 2006
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of the south polar residual cap. The darkened edges of the pits and mesas are evidence of the removal -- by sublimation -- of frozen carbon dioxide during the recent martian summer. Summer ended and autumn began in January 2006, shortly before this image was acquired.

Location near: 86.8°S, 90.5°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:
2006-04-22