Mars Picture of the Day: Slope Streaks in Arabia
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-353, 7 May 2003
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
Light-, dark-, and intermediate-toned slope streaks are
common in the thick, dust-mantled regions of Arabia Terra,
parts of Tharsis, Memnonia, and some of
the knobby areas west of Amazonis
Planitia. They most likely form by avalanching of
loose, dry dust, perhaps each triggered by a gust of wind.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
wide angle camera image, acquired earlier this week
(in May 2003), shows a plethora of slope streaks on the
walls of an impact crater in east-central Arabia Terra
near 13.0°N, 319.8°W.
The image is 3 km (1.9 mi) wide; sunlight illuminates the
scene from the left/lower 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.
