NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Inverted Channels 04-13-2006
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1431, 13 April 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows ridges exposed by erosion in the Aeolis region of Mars. The curved and crisscrossing ridges were once channels in a fan of sediment deposited in the Aeolis lowlands. The channels were more resistant to wind erosion than the surrounding materials, so today they are left standing as ridges rather than valleys. |
| Location near: 6.1°S, 209.0°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Southern Summer |
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.
