NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullied Crater Wall 02-18-2004

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-640, 18 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Many craters and troughs at middle latitudes on Mars
have gullies carved into their slopes. These gullies often
have banked or even meandering channels that indicate a
fluid with the properties of water was involved. Indeed,
it is possible that such gullies indicate places where
liquid water seeped out to the martian surface, or formed
from melting ice, in the not-too-distant past.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an example located in a crater in Terra Cimmeria
near 37.7°S, 191.6°W. The picture was acquired only
a few months ago in November 2003.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/upper left; the
picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.