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Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near Mars.

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near Mars.

July 14, 2009

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near Mars.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This series of images shows carbon dioxide ice sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas) inside a pit at Mars' south pole. Each frame of the animation was taken by the HiRISE camera on NAS...
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This series of images shows carbon dioxide ice sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas) inside a pit at Mars' south pole.
HiRISE Spots CO2 Ice Thawing
Buzz Aldrin, an Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon, makes a holographic appearance in 'Destination: Mars,' a mixed-reality tour of a part of Mars that NASA's Curiosity rover has explored.
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Buzz Aldrin, an Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon, makes a holographic appearance in 'Destination: Mars,' a mixed-reality tour of a part of Mars that NASA's Curiosity rover has explored.
Buzz Aldrin
Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
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Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
Shalbatana Vallis is a large channel with steep walls and a flat floor that may have formed by water draining from nearby Ganges Chasma. Here a section of the wall collapsed and produced a landslid...
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Shalbatana Vallis is a large channel with steep walls and a flat floor that may have formed by water draining from nearby Ganges Chasma.
Landslide in Shalbatana Vallis (3-D)
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sand dune field in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The dark lines swirling over the surface of the dunes are the tracks of dust devi...
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This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sand dune field in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The dark lines swirling over the surface of the dunes are the tracks of dust devils.
Dust Devils on Mars
This view combines information from two instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground in a small portion of the Nili Fossae plains re...
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This view combines information from two instruments on a NASA Mars orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground within the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars. Carbonate-rich deposits in this area (coded green) hold some carbon formerly in the atmosphere's carbon dioxide.
Rocks Here Sequester Some of Mars' Early Atmosphere
This area of Mars is shaped by lava flows from volcanic eruptions.
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This area of Mars has a few gray craters, with white/light material surrounding it.
Flow and Flow Features in Amazonis Planitia
This image from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact scar on Mars made by pieces of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that the spacecraft shed just before entering the Mar...
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This image from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact scar on Mars made by pieces of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that the spacecraft shed just before entering the Martian atmosphere.
Impact Scars from MSL Cruise Stage and Two Balance Weights (Figure 2)
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 vertically exaggerated view shows scalloped depressions in a part of Mars where such textures prompted researchers to check for buried ice, using ground-penetrating radar aboard NASA's Mars Re...
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This vertically exaggerated view shows scalloped depressions in a part of Mars where such textures prompted researchers to check for buried ice, using ground-penetrating radar aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They found about as much frozen water as the volume of Lake Superior.
Scalloped Terrain Led to Finding of Buried Ice on Mars
Two 2001 images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the planet's appearance during a dust storm.
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two global mars views, one clear one hazy
The 2001 Great Dust Storms - Hellas/Syrtis Major
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 29th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 4, 2012).
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 29th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 4, 2012).
Curiosity Traverse Map Through Sol 29
These images were taken of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 19, 2014, during the comet's close flyby of Mars and the spacecraft.
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These images were taken of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 19, 2014, during the comet's close flyby of Mars and the spacecraft.
First Resolved Image of a Long-Period Comet's Nucleus
A region known as "Cape York" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity worked for 20 months, is highlighted in these images.
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A region known as "Cape York" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity worked for 20 months, is highlighted in these images.
'Cape York' Explored
This observation shows a wrinkle ridge in Solis Planum, located in the Thaumasia region of Mars, a high-elevation volcanic plain located south of the Valles Marineris canyon system and east of the ...
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This observation shows a wrinkle ridge in Solis Planum, located in the Thaumasia region of Mars, a high-elevation volcanic plain located south of the Valles Marineris canyon system and east of the Tharsis volcanic complex. Solis Planum contains some of the most distinct and well studied arrays of wrinkle ridges on Mars. Wrinkle ridges are long, winding topographic highs and are often characterized by a broad arch topped with a crenulated ridge. These features have been identified on many other planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mercury, and Venus. On Mars, they are many tens to hundreds of kilometers long, tens of kilometers wide, and have a relief of a few hundred meters. Wrinkle ridges are most commonly believed to form from horizontal compression or shortening of the crust due to faulting and are often located in volcanic plains. They commonly have asymmetrical cross sectional profiles and an offset in elevation on either side of the ridge. Large dunes are also visible bordering the wrinkle ridge. The reddish colors seen in this image most likely indicate the presence of dust (or indurated dust) and the darker, bluish colors most likely indicate the presence of larger rocks and boulders on the wrinkle ridge.
Wrinkle Ridge in Solis Planum
Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
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Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
The yellow-white cloud in the bottom-center of this image is a Mars "dust tower" — a concentrated cloud of dust that can be lofted dozens of miles above the surface. The blue-white plumes are water...
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a concentrated cloud of dust on Mars
A Mars Dust Tower Stands Out
This artist's animation shows how orbiters over Mars will monitor the landing of NASA's Curiosity rover. (No audio)
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Great Convergence of Spacecraft around Mars
Great Convergence of Spacecraft around Mars
This global map of Mars was acquired on July 31, 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 July 31, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mars Weather Map, July 31
These images from orbit show an area near Mars' south pole where coalescing or elongated pits are interpreted as signs that an underlying deposit of frozen carbon dioxide, or "dry ice," has been sh...
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These images from orbit show an area near Mars' south pole where coalescing or elongated pits are interpreted as signs that an underlying deposit of frozen carbon dioxide, or "dry ice," has been shrinking by sublimation.
Pitting from Sublimation of Underlying Dry-Ice Layer
This HiRISE image shows a valley filled with an assortment of linear ridges. These ridges are often referred to as transverse aeolian ridges, or TAR, and they take a variety of forms.
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This HiRISE image shows a valley filled with an assortment of linear ridges. These ridges are often referred to as transverse aeolian ridges, or TAR, and they take a variety of forms.
Feathery Ridges
This view shows the ground covered in the first image of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
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This view shows the ground covered in the first image of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
First Mars Image from Newly Arrived Camera
This graphic depicts the relative shapes and distances from Mars for five active orbiter missions plus the planet's two natural satellites. It illustrates the potential for intersections of the spa...
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This graphic depicts the relative shapes and distances from Mars for five active orbiter missions plus the planet's two natural satellites. It illustrates the potential for intersections of the spacecraft orbits.
Diverse Orbits Around Mars
This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows distinct bands of alternating tone and brightness within the "Murray Formation" on Mars.
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This image shows distinct bands of alternating tone and brightness within the "Murray Formation" on Mars. A black arrow points to those bands, which cut across diagonally in this image.
Bands on the 'Murray Formation'
Streamlined forms in this Martian valley resulted from the outflow of a lake hundreds of millions years more recently than an era of Martian lakes previously confirmed. This image from the Context ...
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Streamlined forms in this Martian valley resulted from the outflow of a lake hundreds of millions years more recently than an era of Martian lakes previously confirmed. This image from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers an area in Arabia Terra about 8 miles wide.
Outflow Stream from Relatively Recent Martian Lake

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