NASA Mars Picture of the Day: A Gullied Crater Wall

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-919, 23 November 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a suite of southern middle-latitude gullies cut
into the wall of an impact crater located
near 32.1°S, 12.9°W. These gullies might indicate
that groundwater seeped to the surface and ran down these
slopes. Others have suggested that similar gullies on Mars
might form by other processes, including melting of ground ice
or snow, but this image does not provide any clues that
would suggest either of these alternatives are
better than the groundwater interpretation.
The 300 meter scale bar is about 984 feet long.
Sunlight illuminates the scene 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.