Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Gullied Slope
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-671, 20 March 2004
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies and debris aprons in a crater near 38.5°S, 174.5°W. Gullies such as these may have formed by running water, carbon dioxide, or dry mass movement processes. Most investigators of martian gullies consider that water, whether fresh or briney, may have been involved. This picture 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.
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