Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)

After a long hiatus (20 years since the Vikings arrived at Mars!) we were back, and the new era of Mars exploration had begun. Our most detailed images from orbit to date come from the Mars Global Surveyor. In orbit since September 1997, contact was lost in November 2006, after an illustrious 9-year “career”. The spacecraft carried both wide-angle and high-resolution (narrow-angle) cameras.

One of the major discoveries of the MGS is the presence of gullies carved into the sides of cliffs. While it is not 100% proven, currently these are generally thought to have arisen from water from subsurface ice released from the cliff faces. The interpretation of these gullies and others as due to water have been contested by some planetary scientists. Instead, outflows of CO2 similar to pyroclastic flows in terrestrial volcanoes, is envisioned. If this alternate interpretation is correct, Mars is dry.

See: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/news2002/gullies_streaks/index.html

Whatever causes these features, it isn’t something that only happened a long time ago. These 2 images were obtained only 4 years apart. This process is continuing today!

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/gallery/20061206a-gullies.html#allimages

This next image shows a section of Schiaparelli Crater, showing layered terrain. The layered terrain certainly seems to be due to some sort of sedimentation. Whether this sedimentation was due to water or wind is unknown. Wind has certainly sculpted these layers since they were laid down, however.

PDF-ers: For more versions of the image, go to:

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/10_30_01_releases/schiaparelli/index.html

More wind sculpting in the southern Elysium Planum/southern Amazonis region of Mars. Try looking at this 3D anaglyph with your 3D glasses!

To the left is an image of the CO2 ice of the South Polar Cap.

There are just too many cool pictures to show here. To view them on your own, the MOC Gallery is a good place to go.

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/index.html

This spacecraft also carried the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) for measuring…you guessed it.. altitudes of the planet.

http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html

Finally, MGS had an infrared spectrometer that made a thermal maps of the planet. A Quicktime movie of the dust storm of 2001 can be found here: http://www.physics.uc.edu/~sitko/AdvancedAstro/19-MGS/2001-31-e-low_quicktime