Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Gullies and Streaks on Crater wall Kaiser
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-308, 18 April 2002
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows gullies emergent from a specific layer in the wall of an
ancient crater within a much larger crater, Kaiser.
Located at 46.4°S, 341.4°W, this picture obtained in
early southern summer also shows a plethora of dark, and in some places
squiggly, streaks. The streaks are thought to have been formed
by the passage of dust devils that removed or disrupted a thin coating
of dust from the surface. Such streaks commonly form at martian
middle latitudes in late spring and early summer.
The gullies in the crater wall were likely eroded by
a fluid, perhaps water. This picture was
obtained in January 2002; it covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi)
across and is illuminated from the upper left.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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,
CA. 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, CA
and Denver, CO.
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