South Polar "Poodle"

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-422, 15 July 2003

Have you ever stared up at the clouds in the sky and seen the shapes of animals, people, or objects? Sometimes when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) team is looking at newly-returned pictures from Mars, the same thing happens. This is a picture of pits and scarps in the frozen south polar carbon dioxide ice cap. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper right. At the bottom of the picture is a feature that resembles a long, thin poodle; its head faces to the left, the tail to the right. This picture is located near 86.9°S, 55.8°W.