NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Inverted Channels 09-21-2005
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1218, 18 September 2005
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the inverted remains of several channels in a fan-like complex in the Aeolis region of Mars. The inverted channels are the flat-topped ridges that trend from lower right toward upper left (southeast to northwest). Other ridges, trending from lower left toward upper right (southwest to northeast) are yardangs, the products of wind erosion. The channels were inverted by erosion, as well — the tops of these ridges were once the floor of the channels (or the tops of materials that filled the channels). |
Location near: 5.1°S, 205.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower 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.
