NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullied Trough Wall

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-756, 13 June 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows gullies emergent from beneath erosion-resistant
rock layers in a trough south of Atlantis Chaos
near 38.9°S, 176.3°W. Gullies such as these are
fairly common in depressions at south middle latitudes.
Tens of thousands of gullies have been identified in MGS
MOC and Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)
images. Whether they formed by running liquid water remains
a controversial issue. Banked channels, like some
shown here, are one form of evidence cited to indicate that
a fluid with the properties of liquid water may have been
involved.
This image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
The scene is illuminated by sunlight 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.