NASA Just Released Over 2,000 Stunning New Photos of Mars, See
If you’re looking for solitude and beauty, there’s nowhere better than the surface of Mars. Mars has earned the nickname the red planet, but the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) can transform subtle differences in soils into a rainbow of colors.
For 10 years, HiRISE has captured wonderful – and scientifically valuable – images of Mars. Their photos are so detailed that scientists can examine the planet’s features at the scale of just a few meters, including the recent crash site of the Schiaparelli Mars spacecraft in Europe. October, to bring you some of the best – and we hope to help you temporarily escape Earth. NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
A great abyss.
Some dark, rust-colored dunes at Russell Crater.
NASA can land its next nuclear-powered space mission on Mars 2020 here.
The black spot is where the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli Mars spacecraft crashed. The white spots, pointed with arrows, are pieces of the probe.
The false coloring of this image makes a giant dune and its ravines appear blue.
A possible landing site for the ExoMars 2020 mission, which the European Space Agency is running.
A North Pole dune field nicknamed “Kolhar” in homage to the fictional world of Frank Herbert.
The carbon dioxide that turns from solid to gas sculpts these strange shapes at Mars’ south pole
A recent impact crater on Mars. (We’re pretty sure no one put a giant cigarette in here.)
“Spiders” are eruptions of dust caused by the way the Martian surface heats and cools.
Cerberus Palus crater showing off layered sediments.
NASA keeps an eye on ravines like this one for small landslides — and any water that melts in the hot sun to form dark-colored mud.
The glacial terrain looks strangely iridescent.
A steep slope in the eastern Noctis Labyrinthus.
Dunes in a Martian Crater. The red bar is an artifact of NASA image processing.
Wind-shaped dunes on Mars crawl through the cracked ground on Nili Patera. The green bar is the rest of the image processing.
The same sand dunes in full a few months later.
Creating “fans” around the dunes could help scientists understand seasonal changes on Mars.
Another possible landing site for the 2020 Mars mission.
Land near the martian equator.
