NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Galle Crater Scene

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-547, 17 November 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This November 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows gullies, sand dunes, and streaks formed by dust devils
in southern Galle Crater. The gullies are seen in the upper left
(northwest) corner; they originate at layered rock exposures on a
hillslope, and meander downslope through a deposit of dark, windblown
sand. The gullies might have formed by running water.
All of the darker surfaces in this image are dunes; these dunes
were covered with bright dust during the previous winter (it is now
summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars). Dust devils have
been darkening the dunes by removing or disrupting the coating
of dust, leaving behind a chaotic plethora of darks streaks.
The image is located near
51.9°S, 31.4°W.
The area shown is about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide by 6.8 km (4.2 mi) high.
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.