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Animated Elevation Model of 'Victoria Crater'
- Release Date: September 11, 2006
After driving more than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from the site where it landed in January 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity approached "Victoria Crater" in September 2006. The crater is about 750 meters (half a mile) across. That is about six times wider than "Endurance Crater," which Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and about 35 times wider than "Eagle Crater," where Opportunity first landed. The walls of Victoria hold the scientific allure of much taller stacks of geological layers -- providing the record of a longer span of the area's environmental history -- than Opportunity has been able to inspect on the Meridiani plains or at smaller craters.
This animation created by the U.S. Geological Survey uses a digital elevation model generated from computer analysis of three images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The vertical dimension is not exaggerated relative to the horizonal dimensions. The crater is about 70 meters (230 feet) deep.
The images used for providing the stereo information to calculate relative elevation were taken on Feb. 1, 2004, Feb. 15, 2004 and April 16, 2005. The animation begins and ends with the view looking from the northwest toward the southeast. Opportunity is approaching Victoria from the northwest.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/USGS
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Animation of Three Separate Mars Global Surveyor Orbits
- Release Date: November 23, 2005
Animation of three separate MGS orbits on 2005-04-14. The camera view is in the anti-Sun direction. Each animation covers one complete MGS orbit on that day. All times are UTC spacecraft event time (SCET).
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Mars Global Surveyor Helps Track Changes On Mars
- September 21, 2005
Recent Changes on Mars Seen by Mars Global Surveyor.
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Daytime Temperature (April 9, 1999 - August 23, 2005)
- August 23, 2005
This movie shows the temperature of the surface of Mars as measured by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.
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Spying Changes in Mars' South Polar Cap
- July 13, 2005
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Atmospheric Dust Abundance (April 9, 1999 - August 31, 2004)
- August 31, 2004
The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter has been tracking the weather on Mars for six years of mapping. This movie shows the abundance of dust in the martian atmosphere each day as determined by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer.
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Beta Supplement Animation
- March 3, 2000
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