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Polar Cap Pits

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows kidney bean-shaped pits, and other pits, formed by erosion in a landscape of frozen carbon dioxide in the martian south polar residual cap.
PIA04150
Credits: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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Description

17 August 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows kidney bean-shaped pits, and other pits, formed by erosion in a landscape of frozen carbon dioxide. This images shows one of about a dozen different patterns that are common in various locations across the martian south polar residual cap, an area that has been receiving intense scrutiny by the MGS MOC this year, because it is visible on every orbit and in daylight for most of 2005.

Location near: 86.9°S, 6.9°W
Image width: width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Spring