NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Bi-level Gullies
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1402, 15 March 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows two suites of gullies within a single impact crater in the Terra Cimmeria region. The gullies near the top of the image are located on the northern wall of the crater, while the lower suite resides on a lower bench in the crater’s northern wall complex. Gully erosion has cut into the layered rock exposed on the crater wall. Water may have been involved in their formation. |
Location near: 38.2°S, 190.6°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Summer |
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.