NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gully in the North
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1234, 28 September 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a gully formed in the wall of a north middle-latitude crater. Similar gullies are common at the middle and polar latitudes of Mars, and might have formed by the action of liquid water. Others have argued for carbon dioxide or dry mass movement for the genesis of such landforms. This particular image was acquired during northern autumn, when the sky over the terrain of the martian northern mid-latitudes is typically hazy. |
Location near: 50.0°N, 356.9°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
