NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Inverted Channels 06-10-2005
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1118, 10 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a complex of overlapping, inverted channels in a fan exposed by erosion, then mantled by dust, in the Aeolis region of Mars. Aeolis exhibits an abundance of inverted channels and fan-shaped forms, largely created by a liquid such as water, and then preserved in layered, sedimentary rock that has been subsequently eroded by wind. |
Location near: 4.6°S, 205.3°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Spring |
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.
