NASA has published exciting new images of Mars, and here are the best of them
Mars definitely deserves to be called the Red Planet, since it is mostly covered with reddish-brown rust. However, scientists use many shooting techniques, and photos of the surface of Mars are painted with all the colors of the rainbow.
The automatic interplanetary station Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched by the American aerospace agency NASA, began orbiting Mars in 2006, and since then its camera has been shooting stunning and scientifically valuable landscapes. The camera, called HiRISE, takes such detailed photos that scientists can explore the surface of the planet on a scale of several feet.
NASA recently posted a new batch of images taken by the station, and we chose the most picturesque of them. Scientists have yet to study them in detail, and who knows what incredible discoveries await us.
(39 photos in total)
Possible landing site of the European Space Agency's Exomars mission.
A dune field near one of the poles, codenamed "Kolhar", which is so named after one of the fictional worlds of the science fiction writer Frank Herbert.
The crater is the Cerberus Depression with layers of sedimentary deposits.
The ice-crusted surface sparkles and shimmers.
The Labyrinth of the Night is the largest labyrinth on Mars. The photo shows its eastern part.
Dunes in a Martian crater. The red stripe is an artifact that arose during the processing of photos at NASA.
A possible landing site for the Mars 2020 mission, which NASA wants to launch in the coming years.
The Tharsis Highlands, the most volcanic part of Mars.
The surface near the equator of Mars.
Rocky craters on the Martian plains.
The Ceraunius furrows are a place dominated by volcanic flows and large faults.
The western land of Arabia and its layered surface.
A region with a beautiful texture in the north of Sinus Meridiani.
Unusual Martian landscapes (the green stripe is also an artifact from image processing).
A crater from a recent collision (no, no one put out a giant cigarette here).
Arcadia Plain, a large plain region of Mars.
The occurrence of swirls around the dunes may help scientists better understand climate change on Mars.
Utopia Plain.
Fascinating color transition.
Seasonal dunes on Mars.
Scientists believe that this area called Nepenthes Mensae could be a river plain because of its texture.
Here the cliffs slowly crumbled and dissolved into the landscape.
Alluvial swirls, according to scientists, are a sign that there was once water on Mars.
A small but fresh crater on the surface of Mars.
Scientists use the HiRISE camera to track changes in gutters on the surface. This can help them understand where these furrows came from.
Open rock in Capri Canyon.
These "spiders" are dusty explosions that occur due to the heating and cooling of the planet's surface.
Eos Canyon is part of the Mariner Valley, a giant canyon system on Mars.
Another fault that is monitored with the help of HiRISE.
A pedestal crater formed due to the fact that erosion of different rocks occurred at different speeds.
That's how Mars thaws.
Scientists measure the diffuse reflection coefficient — the amount of light that is reflected from the surface of Mars.
The bottom of the reservoir.
Possible landing site of the Mars 2020 mission.
Such formations on the surface may indicate that there were once glaciers here.
The frequent faults on the Utopia plateau seem to have been made by someone.
Scientists believe that these are pieces of rock that were brought here by the explosion.
Yardangs, sharp incisions on the surface caused by exposure to strong winds.
The area near the North Pole.
Keywords: NASA | Landscapes | Mars | Surface