Space Topics: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Year in Pictures: 2009
Very Recent Gullies at High Latitude on Mars
Very recent gullies at high latitude on Mars
Credit: NASA / JPL / UA
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This High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment
(HiRISE) image
covers the rim of
a geologically recent
impact crater located
at a high southern latitude
(52.87 degrees
south, 234.7 degrees
east). The crater has
excavated subsurface
layers of varying-colored
rocks, which
were later eroded by
gullies. Gullies are
common in Mars’ middle
latitudes (between
35 and 45 degrees
north and south) but
rare at higher latitudes,
perhaps because there are very few steep slopes at high latitudes due to abundant
ground ice. Recent impact craters have new steep topography in which gullies
can form.
This image covers an area just 800 x 600 meters in size; it is just a small
part of the full image
available here. The HiRISE team released hundreds of
images to the public in 2009, amounting to terabytes of data. Every image rewards
close inspection with views of landscapes that are simultaneously familiar
and alien.
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