NASA Mars Image of the Day: Valley Floor

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-529, 30 October 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows the floor of an ancient valley located
near the Pyrrhae Chaos region of Mars. This valley might have
been carved by liquid water, but today no evidence
remains that a fluid ever flowed through it.
Long after the valley formed, its floor was covered by large,
windblown, ripple-like dunes. This picture is located
near 13.0°S, 31.2°W. The image is illuminated by
sunlight from the upper left and
covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.