Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. April 4, 2003
Prolific NASA Orbiter Adds Thousands of Photos to Mars Album
Mars Global Surveyor captured this image of gullies in a Mars
crater at 42.4 degrees S, 158.2 degrees W. The winds of Mars
leave their marks on many of the 11,664 new pictures being
posted on the Internet today by the camera team for NASA's Mars
Global Surveyor (MGS) mission. In one image the pattern of sand
dunes on a patch of southern-hemisphere desert resembles scales
on a fish. On a larger scale, full-globe Mars images show wispy
water ice clouds shaped by winds as the seasons change. Other
new images reveal details of features such as gullies,
landslides and seasonal frost. The new batch, taken between
February and July 2002, brings the total number of images in the
online gallery to more than 123,800. MGS has been orbiting the
red planet since Sept. 12, 1997. The mission has examined the
entire Mars surface and provided a wealth of information about
the planet's atmosphere and interior.