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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Photo: Dry Debris, Not Water, Caused Recent Flows on Mars


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Sometime between 1999 and 2005 flowing material created a bright streak—seen at left in a new image from the Mars-orbiting HiRISE camera—in a gully on the side of a crater in the Centauri Montes region of Mars.

Computer models of this formation show what it should look like if it was created by pure liquid water (middle) or a landslide of dry debris (right). The new study concludes that the fingering on the end of the feature better matches the dry landslide scenario.

Image courtesy Jon Pelletier, UA