NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Mid-latitude Gully Features

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-814, 10 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image, acquired in March 2004, shows gullies formed in the
wall of a south middle-latitude crater wall
near 39.7°S, 208.6°W.
The banked, curved
nature of the channels in each gully are among the key
indicators that a fluid, such as liquid water, may have
been required to form them.
The picture
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated
by sunlight from the upper left.

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, California.
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,
California and Denver, Colorado.