NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullies in Noachis

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-728, 16 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This full-resolution (1.5 m/pixel; 5 ft/pixel)
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows gullies on a crater wall in northern
Noachis Terra. The gullies might have formed by
the seepage of martian groundwater or melting of
ice. However, the Mars science community is still
studying this topic and no consensus has yet emerged
as to whether such gullies could have formed without
water. These gullies are located
near 32.1°S, 12.9°W.
The 300 meter scale bar also equals 328 yards (984 feet).
The picture is illuminated by sunlight from the left/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.