NASA Mars Image of the Day: Martian Gullies

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-470, 1 September 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This July 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
full-resolution (1.5 meters–5 feet–per pixel) image shows a suite
of gullies in the wall of a crater near 35.3°S, 76.3°W.
The gullies are considered to have formed by downslope transport
of water-laden debris, although the exact nature of the fluid is
unknown because it is no longer present. This image covers an area
3 km (1.9 mi) wide. 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.