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Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.

August 30, 2005

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This animation blinks between two images of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander hardware around the mission's 2008 landing site on far-northern Mars.  By late 2017, dust obscures much of what was visible tw...
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animation switching between two views of barren martian landscape seen from above
NASA's Phoenix Lander on Mars, Nearly a Decade Later
A dramatic, fresh impact crater dominates this image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2013.
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A dramatic, fresh impact crater dominates this image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2013.
A Spectacular New Martian Impact Crater
The eastern margin of a rippled dune in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average distance of three meters (about three yards) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen by NASA's Mars Reco...
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The eastern margin of a rippled dune in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average distance of three meters (about three yards) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Shifting Sand in Herschel Crater
These barchan (crescent-shaped) sand dunes are found within the North Polar erg of Mars.
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These barchan (crescent-shaped) sand dunes are found within the North Polar erg of Mars.
Well-Speckled Polar Dunes
Image of Hesperia Planum from the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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Image of Hesperia Planum from the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Hesperia Planum
This photograph from Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better tha...
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This photograph from Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did.
'Wing' Dike of Hardened Lava in New Mexico
Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to have been formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars. Detection of hydrated salts at the streaks suppo...
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Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to have been formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars. Detection of hydrated salts at the streaks supports that interpretation. The features are called "recurring slope lineae."
Recurring 'Lineae' on Slopes at Hale Crater, Mars
The Mars Climate Sounder, an instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter designed to monitor daily changes in the global atmosphere of Mars, made its first observations of Mars on March 24, 2006.
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First Data from Mars Climate Sounder
First Data from Mars Climate Sounder
This global map of Mars was acquired on Aug. 4, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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This global map of Mars was acquired on Aug. 4, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mars Weather Map, Aug. 4
Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
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Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
Artist concept of Glaciers on Mars
This HiRISE image covers the southwest portion of the terraces and floor of Holden Crater situated in southwest Margaritifer Terra.
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This HiRISE image covers the southwest portion of the terraces and floor of Holden Crater situated in southwest Margaritifer Terra. The HiRISE sub-frame shows the most clearly-evident image of a megabreccia on Mars. Breccia is a rock typically consisting of rock fragments of various sizes and shapes that have been broken, tumbled and cemented together in sudden geologic event (e.g., a landslide, a flashflood or even an impact-cratering event). If it were not for the dark sandy dunes dispersed through out the sub-image, this image could easily fool an expert into thinking that this image is actually a photograph of a hand sample of an impact breccia. The prefix "mega" implies that the breccia in the sub-image consists of clasts, or rock fragments, that are typically larger than a large house or a building. The rectangular megaclast near the center of the image is a colossal 50 x 25 meters (~150 X 75 feet). As mentioned in the transition image caption for Holden crater (TRA_000861_1530), the crater likely experienced extensive modification by running water, which is supported by observations of drainage and deposition into the crater from a large channel (Uzboi Valles) breaching Holden's southwest rim. While it is possible that the megabreccia formed from a catastrophic release of water into the crater, a more likely possibility is that it formed from the impact that created the approx. 150 km-in-diameter Holden crater. Popigai Crater, a terrestrial crater of half the size of Holden, possesses a similar occurrence of megabreccia with a similar range in megaclast size to the Holden crater example. An impact-generated megabreccia deposit, as observed in terrestrial craters, typically lies beneath the crater floor, so the exhumation of the megabreccia may be the result of down-cutting and erosion of water that once flowed through Uzboi Valles.
Holden Crater Megabreccia: A Telltale Sign of a Sudden and Violent Event
The Cerberus Fossae are a group of troughs in the Cerberus region of Mars that run roughly parallel to one another. They formed due to extension of the crust in the region. Some of the troughs, suc...
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The Cerberus Fossae are a group of troughs in the Cerberus region of Mars that run roughly parallel to one another.
Vent in the Cerberus Region (3-D)
This May 2015 image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location on Mars associated with the best-selling novel and Hollywood movie, "The Martian." It is in a regio...
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This May 2015 image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location on Mars associated with the best-selling novel and Hollywood movie, "The Martian." It is in a region called Acidalia Planitia, at the landing site for the science-fiction tale's Ares 3 mission.
The Ares 3 Landing Site (Figure A)
This sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012, and how that dark scar's appearance ch...
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This sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012, and how that dark scar's appearance changed over the subsequent 30 months. The images are from HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Changes in Scars From 2012 Mars Landing
The black speck circled in the lower left corner of this image is a cluster of recently formed craters spotted on Mars using a new machine-learning algorithm. This image was taken by the Context Ca...
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cluster of recently formed craters on Mars
Machine Learning Spots a Cluster of Mars Craters: Context Camera's View
This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
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This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
Phlegethon Catena (3-D)
Lucus Planum is a part of the enigmatic Medusa Fossae Formation, a broad, soft, and easily eroded deposit. Here this deposit is thin and considerably rougher than elsewhere, implying that it is hea...
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Lucus Planum is a part of the enigmatic Medusa Fossae Formation, a broad, soft, and easily eroded deposit.
Channel in Lucus Planum (3-D)
The movie you're watching here is a sequence of 3 HiRISE images that were taken of an object that might be the Beagle 2 lander in the Isidis Planitia.
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Found: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Locates Beagle 2 Lander
Found: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Locates Beagle 2 Lander
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image of the Opportunity rover on the southwest rim of "Santa Maria" crater on New...
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The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image of the Opportunity rover on the southwest rim of "Santa Maria" crater on New Year's Eve 2010, or Martian day (sol) 2466 of the rover's work on Mars.
Mars Orbiter Sees Rover Opportunity at Crater Edge (Annotated)
This image shows a portion of the central mound in the impact crater Gale that is of interest to scientists because it is composed of light-toned layered deposits. 
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This image shows a portion of the central mound in the impact crater Gale
Layers in a Central Mound in Gale Crater (3-D)
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars in its approach to and April 1, 2014, arrival at a waypoint called "the Kimberley," which rover team scientists chose in 2013 as the locatio...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars in its approach to and April 1, 2014, arrival at a waypoint called "the Kimberley," which rover team scientists chose in 2013 as the location for the mission's next major investigations.
Map of Curiosity Mars Rover's Drives to 'the Kimberley' Waypoint
The Russell Crater dune field is covered seasonally by carbon dioxide frost, and this image shows the dune field after the frost has sublimated (evaporated directly from solid to gas). There are ju...
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The Russell Crater dune field is covered seasonally by carbon dioxide frost, and this image shows the dune field after the frost has sublimated (evaporated directly from solid to gas).
Russell Crater Dunes, Defrosted
This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 130th Martian day, or sol, (De...
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This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 130th Martian day, or sol, (Dec. 17, 2012).
Curiosity Traverse Map, Sol 130
This near-global map was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM. The yellow square indicates the Nili Fossae region ...
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This 72-color near-global map of the Red Planet was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) using its Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM.
One of CRISM's Final Maps of Mars
Icy Layers and Climate Fluctuations near the Martian North Pole
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Icy Layers and Climate Fluctuations near the Martian North Pole
Icy Layers and Climate Fluctuations near the Martian North Pole

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