Mars

Mars No. 015-090204_1-0037_01-6-v-7680-300

015-090204_1-0037_01-6-v-7680-300

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This mosaic is composed of 384 individual images, taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The rover was in the Gusev Crater, roughly 600 meters (1,968 feet) from the base of the Columbia Hills when the images were taken. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

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February 2004 to August 2004 --- Sand dunes shaped like blue-black flames lie next to a central hill within an unnamed 120-kilometer crater in the eastern Arabia region of Mars. This mosaic was made from images taken at visible and infrared wavelengths by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

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November 2004 --- The Opportunity rover from the Mars Exploration Spacecraft captured this view of Burns Cliff on the inner wall of the Endurance Crater. The view combines 46 different image frames into an approximately true-color rendering spanning more than 180 degrees side to side. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

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December 2002 to November 2004 --- A sea of dark dunes, sculpted by the wind into long lines, surrounds the northern polar cap covering an area the size of Texas. The false-color image records areas with cooler temperatures in bluer tints, while warmer features are depicted in yellow and oranges. The image was taken on the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

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January 2002 --- This image was acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor Narrow Angle Camera during mid-summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The dark streaks across the image are trails left behind by small dust devils on the surface of Mars. The exact location is 69 degrees S, 208 degrees W. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

Mars No. 42-17390720

May 2003 and April 2006 --- The wide, circular blanket of ejected debris surrounding this crater has become greatly eroded by the wind, which has stripped its surface features. Most of the fine material is gone and the wind is now working on the more massive continuous ejecta blanket. This image was taken from the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft. --- Image by © NASA/Corbis

Mars No. 42-21033881

17 Feb 1977 --- Dust storm west of Argyre in Thauasia on Mars. Multi-frame mosaic. Viking Orbiter 2, February 17, 1977 --- Image by © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson/Kinetikon Pictures/Corbis

Mars No. 42-22377629

This mosaic is composed of about 100 Viking Orbiter images. The center of the image is near the impact crater Schiaparelli. The large circular area with a bright yellow color is known as Arabia. The dark streaks with bright margins emanating from craters in the Oxia Palus region are caused by erosion and/or deposition by the wind. Bright white areas to the south, including the Hellas impact basin at the lower right, are covered by carbon dioxide frost. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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Twelve orbits a day provide the Mars Global Surveyor MOC wide angle cameras a global "snapshot" of weather patterns across the planet. Here, bluish-white water ice clouds hang above the Tharsis volcanoes. This computer generated image was created by wrapping the global image onto a sphere. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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Sometimes, pictures received from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) are "just plain pretty." This image shows a group of sand dunes at the edge of a much larger field of dark-toned dunes in Proctor, named for 19th Century British astronomer Richard A. Proctor. The dunes are created by winds blowing largely from the east/northeast. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

Mars No. 42-22377650

After the Phoenix lander's successful touchdown on Mars - the first successful soft landing on the Red Planet in 17 years - the probe took this picture of its own foot to make sure the dust had settled. Digitally modified. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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Early spring typically brings dust storms to northern polar Mars. As the north polar cap begins to thaw, the temperature difference between the cold frost region and recently thawed surface results in swirling winds. The choppy dust clouds of at least three dust storms are visible in this mosaic of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 2002. The white polar cap is frozen carbon dioxide. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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Following a long drive, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this backwards glance at its tracks across the landscape on sol 90 of its mission. The image is from Spirit's navigation camera. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the rover's now-empty lander, the Challenger Memorial Station, at Meridiani Planum, Mars. This is a mosaic image consisting of 12 color images acquired with the camera's red, green and blue filters. The color balance has been set to approximate the colors that a human eye would see. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This partial panoramic image from the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the lander in the center of the crater at Meridiani Planum, Mars. The image was taken on sol 34 of Opportunity's journey. Note the view of the plains outside the crater, the rover tracks in the center and right of the image, and the airbag bounce marks behind the lander. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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The interior of a crater surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum, Mars, can be seen in this color image from the rover's panoramic camera. The rim of the crater is approximately 10 meters from the rover, and is about 20 meters in diameter. Scientists are intrigued by the abundance of rock outcrops, as well as the crater's soil, which appears to be a mixture of coarse gray grains and fine reddish grains. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This image shows the rock dubbed "Bounce" near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site at Meridiani Planum, Mars, after Opportunity drilled into it with its rock abrasion tool. The drilling of the 7-millimeter-deep hole generated a bright powder. The two colored spots show where scientists took measurements of the rock with the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This image shows the rock dubbed "Bounce" near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site at Meridiani Planum, Mars, after Opportunity drilled into it with its rock abrasion tool. The drilling of the 7-millimeter-deep hole generated a bright powder. The two colored spots show where scientists took measurements of the rock with the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This approximate true-color image mosaic from the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a trench dug by the rover in the vicinity of the "Anatolia" region. Detailed comparisons between soils exposed at the surface and those found at depth reveal that surface soils have higher levels of hematite while subsurface soils show fine particles derived from basalt. The trench is approximately 11 centimeters deep. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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When the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was landing on 4 January 2004, Mars Global Surveyor was in position above the region to receive the critical entry, descent, and landing data via UHF radio transmission to the MGS Mars Relay system. At the same time that MGS was receiving data during Spirit's landing, the MGS MOC obtained this oblique wide angle view looking east across the Martian surface toward Gusev Crater, the site where the MER-A landed. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This approximate true-color image mosaic from the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the target nicknamed "Hamersley" within "Fram Crater." The nature of the outcrop material seen in this location is visibly disrupted. Some areas also have layering that may be distinctive from what scientists saw previously in "Eagle Crater." --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This false-color photo mosaic image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity panoramic camera shows a downward view from the rover as it sits at the edge of "Endurance" crater. The gradual, "blueberry"-strewn slope before the rover contains an exposed dark layer of rock that wraps around the upper section of the crater. Scientists suspect that this rock layer will provide clues about Mars' distant past. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows collapse pits on the northern flank of the giant Tharsis shield volcano, Ascraeus Mons. Large, dark boulders occur on the floors of some of the pits. The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the lower left. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis

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This approximate true-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a rock outcrop dubbed "Longhorn," and behind it, the sweeping plains of Gusev Crater. On the horizon, the rim of Gusev Crater is clearly visible. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis