NASA Mars Picture for the Day: Russell Dune Gullies
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1272, 5 November 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies and dust devil streaks on the slopes of a large dune in Russell Crater. Gullies on martian dunes typically occur only in the Noachis Terra region, and almost exclusively form on southward-facing slopes. They might be the result of downslope movement of sand mixed with a fluid such as carbon dioxide gas or water that had been trapped as ice in the dune. |
Location near: 54.6°S, 347.2°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Spring |
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.
