These amazing photos of Mars show just how varied — and not so alien — some of the terrain is on the fourth planet.
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Aram Chaos, a 174-mile wide impact crater that lies within in the Southern Highlands of Mars. NASA Here Mars' bedrock is exposed except where covered by sand dunes, as shot by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.NASA This image shows a set of pits, faults, and layers on Mars' western Valles Marineris.NASA The Curiosity rover takes a selfie.NASA The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover uses the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's arm to check the condition of the wheels at routine intervals. NASA NASA's Curiosity rover successfully drilled a two-inch hole on May 20, 2018. It was the first rock sample captured by the drill since October 2016 when a mechanical issue took the drill offline.NASA More bedrock of an unnamed crater.NASA An area of strange texture on the southern floor of what's known as Gale Crater. NASA The edge of a large deposit of wind-blown dust.NASA Layered deposits in Uzboi Vallis, which sometimes occur in alcoves along the valley or below where tributaries enter it.NASA These shallow pits in ice of carbon dioxide are called "Swiss cheese terrain". There is also what might be an impact crater or collapsed pit beneath. NASA An inverted river channel.NASA NASA's InSight lander placed a seismometer onto Mars on Dec. 19, 2018. This device measures ground motions like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. This is the first time a seismometer has ever been placed onto the surface of another planet.NASA The dark, smooth-surfaced object at the center of this Oct. 30, 2016, image was examined with laser pulses and discovered to be an iron-nickel meteorite.NASA Dunes within what's known as the Arkhangelsky Crater. The red bar is an artifact of NASA image processing.NASA/JPL/University of Arizona The Korolev crater, a 50.6-mile wide crater just south of the northern polar cap. The crater is filled almost to the brim with pristine ice year-round.ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO One of millions of small craters that dot the Elysium Planitia region of Mars. NASA The McLaughlin Crater, center, is a large impact crater.NASA This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity rover shows a hillside outcrop with layered rocks.NASA A bird's-eye view of the Curiosity rover (the dot, left centered).NASA Mars' Northernmost Polar cap is not only a year-round fixture, but ringed by sand dunes. In the winter and spring the dunes are also frozen, covered by a seasonal cap of dry ice.NASA Here are several smaller craters that formed on the floor of Saheki Crater, a 53-mile diameter impact crater north of Hellas Basin.NASA Here is one possible place where sand grains are produced on Mars today. NASA The nodule in the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows individual grains of sand.NASA This is a fresh, well-preserved landslide and a giant outflow channel carved by ancient floods.NASA A carbon dioxide ice cap showing "spiders"which are the spider-like mounds that form when carbon dioxide ice below the surface heats up and releases. NASA This enhanced scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the "Spirit Mound".NASA The dark, stick-shaped features clustered on this Martian rock are about the size of grains of rice. The origin of the stick-shaped features is uncertain. NASA Large impact craters have central hills or mountains, because the tremendous shock waves from the impact first compresses the ground, then rebounds.NASA
29 Out-Of-This-World Photos Of Mars To Blow Your Earthling Mind View GalleryEver since NASA's Mariner-4 spacecraft collected the first Mars pictures by way of flyby in 1965, the public has been enraptured by the red planet.
Now, it's easier than ever before to witness the celestial beauty that resides on the red planet with the help of modern orbiters and rovers.
Through pictures of Mars, we have been able to discover that the fourth planet from the sun is not so unlike the roughest conditions on our own home planet. Mars features the remnants of what once were volcanoes, meteors and craters, flash floods, and frost. Though the red planet now is a fairly hostile environment for humans — with freezing temperatures and air of mostly carbon dioxide — NASA forges ahead with plans to send people there — possibly by the 2030s. But for what purpose, exactly?
How Mars Pictures Are Taken
The colorization in these Mars pictures is altogether pretty accurate. When the rover sends Mars pictures back to earth, each pixel in the image is coded in zeros and ones, this binary code is then translated into color and brightness once it's picked up by earth's deep space antennas.
"We're basically doing a more sophisticated version of 'Paint by Numbers' when we reconstruct the images," reported Eric De Jong, one of the team members responsible for processing photos of Mars.
The Mars pictures in the gallery above are shot by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched from Cape Canaveral in 2005, and also from Mars' Curiosity Rover, which is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars and was launched in 2011. Both devices arrived at the red planet about a year after their launch.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter surveys the planet with close-up Mars pictures and features the largest camera ever included on a planetary mission. This camera is unique as it can discern something as small as an office desk on the planet below. One key element in its mission is also to identify ice, water, and any other clues for the potential of life.
In fact, Mars' formation and evolution are comparable to Earth's. About 3.8-3.5 billion years ago, Mars and Earth shared a lot of similarities. For one, Mars was likely much warmer and wetter which means that perhaps life had the potential to arise in this time. There is a lot to glean about our own planet's past — and future — by studying Mars in greater detail, and often through pictures of Mars like these.
Thinking About Colonization
The search for life is also on the front burner. When scientists discovered water on Mars in the form of ice, they had to wonder if life ever existed on Mars, or if it still could, or if it had the potential to someday arise. Mars pictures from the planet's orbiter show what's called the Korolev crater, and it's a 50.6-mile in diameter crater full of crystal clear ice — could be promising, no?
Researchers are also considering what it takes for humans to survive on Mars if we ever hope to colonize it. There are some who are not only excited but serious about achieving this. Elon Musk is one of those people. "You know there’s lots of people who climb mountains. You know why do they climb mountains? People die on Mount Everest all the time," he said. "They like doing it for the challenge."
There are definitely countless challenges that must be met before humans can travel to Mars and back, much less successfully live there. We must find ways to protect astronauts from cosmic and solar radiation, which is more potent in deep space than in a space station. Researchers are hard at work designing radiation-shielding spacesuits that must be perfected before any would-be Mars traveler departs.
"We’ll get to Martian orbit first, safe to say," suggests Dava Newman, NASA’s innovative deputy administrator. "Or perhaps to a Martian moon ... and then the absolute goal is boots on Mars."
Technology is playing a huge role — not only in sending Mars pictures back to Earth — but helping us to understand the planet's landscape as a cohesive whole. Google has even mapped the entire planet to enable us grounded here on our home planet an interactive Mars experience — without all the radiation.
After this look at some astonishing Mars pictures, find out what the first human homes on Mars might look like, and then read about why NASA sent sperm into space.
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