Maunder (Martian crater)
Maunder Crater, as seen by HiRISE. The overhang is part of the degraded south (toward bottom) wall of crater. The scale bar is 500 meters long.
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| Planet | Mars |
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| Coordinates | 50°00′S 358°30′W / 50°S 358.5°WCoordinates: 50°00′S 358°30′W / 50°S 358.5°W |
| Diameter | 107.5 km |
| Eponym | Edward W.Maunder, British astronomer (1851–1928) |
Maunder is an old, eroded crater on Mars, located in the Noachis quadrangle at 50 South and 358.5 West, and is inside Noachis Terra. It measures 107.5 kilometers in diameter and was named after British astronomer Walter Maunder in 1973.
Nearby prominent and named craters include the gigantic Greeley to the north, the slightly smaller Asimov to the northeast, Russell to the southeast, Green to the southwest and Roddenberry nearly to the west.
Maunder has a thick crater rim with the westernmost portion touching the Prime Meridian.
Martian gullies are small, incised networks of narrow channels and their associated downslope sediment deposits, found on the planet of Mars. They are named for their resemblance to terrestrial gullies. First discovered on images from Mars Global Surveyor, they occur on steep slopes, especially on the walls of craters. Usually, each gully has a dendritic alcove at its head, a fan-shaped apron at its base, and a single thread of incised channel linking the two, giving the whole gully an hourglass shape. They are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters. A subclass of gullies is also found cut into the faces of sand dunes which themselves considered to be quite young. On the basis of their form, aspects, positions, and location amongst and apparent interaction with features thought to be rich in water ice, many researchers believed that the processes carving the gullies involve liquid water. However, this remains a topic of active research.
As soon as gullies were discovered, researchers began to image many gullies over and over, looking for possible changes. By 2006, some changes were found. Later, with further analysis it was determined that the changes could have occurred by dry granular flows rather than being driven by flowing water. With continued observations many more changes were found in Gasa Crater and others.
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