NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullies in Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-684, 2 April 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows gullies in the wall of a large southern mid-latitude
impact crater located
near 39.8°S, 202.0°W.
The gullies might have formed by transport of water and sediment
down these crater slopes. Alternatively, a fluid other than water
may have been involved (e.g., carbon dioxide), but most
investigators agree that water is most likely.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.