NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullied Martian Slope

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-647, 25 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Gullies cut material that mantles the slopes of a deep
pit within a crater in Noachis Terra
near 50.1°S, 356.4°W
in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image. Gully channels seem to originate at layer outcrops
in the upper walls of the pit. These may have formed by
downslope movement of liquid water mixed with debris in the
geologically recent martian past. Similar gullies are found
throughout much of the martian middle and high latitudes.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the 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.