Mars Picture of the Day: Gullies in Crater Wall

Mars Global Surveyor – Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-388, 11 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Many craters and troughs at polar and middle latitudes
on Mars have gullies carved in their walls. These
gullies may have formed by running water; others have
suggested alternative, exotic fluids such as liquid or
gaseous carbon dioxide. This view of martian gullies
was acquired by the
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC).
The image shows gullies in the wall of an old meteor
impact crater near
39.0°S, 200.7°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
upper 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.