Space & Astronomy

Mysterious new gully shows up on Mars

By T.K. Randall
March 21, 2014 ·  23 comments

Before and after comparison shots. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A few weeks ago the story of a strange rock that had appeared in a photograph taken by NASA's Curiosity rover managed to make headlines as conventional theorizing gave rise to online speculation ranging from seismic activity to alien intervention.Now another mystery has presented itself on the Martian surface, this time a mysterious gully that seems to have appeared between two photographs taken from orbit almost three years apart.

The winding geological feature is difficult to miss in image comparisons and nobody has been able to definitively explain where it came from. Scientists don't believe that it was carved by water and the prevailing theory at the moment is that it was formed when an accumulation of frost caused a small avalanche which dragged other material down the slope with it.

Source: Wired | Comments (23)

Tags: Mars, Gully