[meteorite-list] NASA Orbiter Finds New Gully Channel on Mars (MRO)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:50:18 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201403191750.s2JHoIHU015523_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-086

NASA Orbiter Finds New Gully Channel on Mars
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 19, 2014

A comparison of images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in
November 2010 and May 2013 reveal the formation of a new gully channel
on a crater-wall slope in the southern highlands of Mars.

These before-and-after images are available online at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17958 .

Gully or ravine landforms are common on Mars, particularly in the
southern highlands. This pair of images shows that material flowing down
from an alcove at the head of a gully broke out of an older route and
eroded a new channel. The dates of the images are more than a full
Martian year apart, so the observations did not pin down the Martian
season of the activity at this site. Before-and-after HiRISE pairs of
similar activity at other sites demonstrate that this type of activity
generally occurs in winter, at temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide,
rather than water, is likely to play the key role.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about HiRISE, see http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu .
For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2014-086
Received on Wed 19 Mar 2014 01:50:18 PM PDT