LOS ANGELES (AP) -- NASA officials this week released the first of what could be a daily flow of images of the Red Planet, snapped by a camera aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
The new image shows in black and white a nearly four-mile wide section of a network of sinuous channels that snakes for about 300 miles (500 km) across the planet's southern hemisphere.
Scientists are divided about how the network, called Nirgal Vallis, was carved. Some have suggested that water formed the smaller gullies and alluvial deposits previously spotted by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
Scientists previously released several other images from Odyssey. However, the latest image is the first in a series of new photographs expected to be released every weekday for the balance of the 917-day science mission that began February 17.
The images are captured by the spacecraft's Thermal Emission Imaging System. The camera developed by Arizona State University peers at Mars in both the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum.
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