Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Autumn Afternoon in Hale Crater
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-257, 17 November 2000
The seasons on Mars and Earth are anti-correlated at present: days are
getting shorter and shadows are getting longer as autumn ends and the
beginning of winter draws nearer in the martian southern hemisphere,
just as the same is occurring in Earth's northern hemisphere. Long
shadows are especially prominent in this high resolution view of
mountains forming part of the central peaks of Hale Crater (left), a
136 kilometer-(85 mile)-diameter impact crater at 36°S,
37°W. The two pictures were taken simultaneously by the Mars Global
Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera on November 10, 2000. The sun
illuminates the scene from the northwest (upper left) about 22°
above the horizon. Knowing the sun angle and the length of the longest
shadow (~1.6 km; ~1.0 mi), the height of the largest peak in the high
resolution view (right) is about 630 meters (~2,070 ft) above the
crater floor. Sand dunes blanket the middle portion of the high
resolution view, and small gullies--possibly carved by water--can be
seen on the slopes of some of the peaks at the upper left (See our
June 2000 collection, "MOC Images Suggest
Recent Sources of Liquid Water on Mars" for similar gullies).
Winter in the southern hemisphere will begin in mid-December 2000.
The high resolution view covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide at a
full-resoluoin scale of 3 meters (9.8 ft) per pixel.
Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of
Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer
mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego,
CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA
and Denver, CO.
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