New Mars Gully Channel Spotted By Nasa Orbiter

Nasa Have Spotted A Brand New Landscape Feature On Mars

Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a brand new feature in the landscape.

These before and after photographs show the formation of a new gully channel on a crater-wall slope in the southern highlands of the red planet.

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.

Europa

PICS: Space Is Incredible

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