Martian Geological Features

Images showcase the Claritas Fossae region's grabens and steep gullies on Mars, highlighting erosion, sediment movement, and geological formations in varied shades of blue and gray.

Gullies probably formed along the bouldery layers in the upper slopes of this unnamed crater within the last few million years. Gullies eroded these crater slopes and transported sediment downslope forming debris aprons multiple times. These older apron surfaces were cut by numerous fractures running perpendicular to the slope. Subsequent episodes of gully activity eroded through these fractures and deposited new aprons. On the floor of the crater are ridges with bouldery layers. These ridges may mark the furthest extent of glaciers that predate much of the original gully activity. Bright flows continue to form in these gullies seasonally. In the upper gully regions, long shadows cast by jagged outcrops allow scientists to determine the heights and depths of landforms by measuring the length of the shadows cast by the ridges onto the gully floor.
Gullies probably formed along the bouldery layers in the upper slopes of this unnamed crater within the last few million years. Gullies eroded these crater slopes and transported sediment downslope forming debris aprons multiple times. These older apron surfaces were cut by numerous fractures running perpendicular to the slope. Subsequent episodes of gully activity eroded through these fractures and deposited new aprons. On the floor of the crater are ridges with bouldery layers. These ridges may mark the furthest extent of glaciers that predate much of the original gully activity. Bright flows continue to form in these gullies seasonally. In the upper gully regions, long shadows cast by jagged outcrops allow scientists to determine the heights and depths of landforms by measuring the length of the shadows cast by the ridges onto the gully floor.
108 assets in this story
1746-19671137
The Claritas Fossae region is characterised by systems of 'graben' running mainly north-west to south-east. A graben forms when a block of the planet's crust drops down between two faults, due to extension, or pulling, of the crust. MRO.
6145-45265919
Gullies probably formed along the bouldery layers in the upper slopes of this unnamed crater within the last few million years. Gullies eroded these crater slopes and transported sediment downslope forming debris aprons multiple times. These older apron surfaces were cut by numerous fractures running perpendicular to the slope. Subsequent episodes of gully activity eroded through these fractures and deposited new aprons. On the floor of the crater are ridges with bouldery layers. These ridges may mark the furthest extent of glaciers that predate much of the original gully activity. Bright flows continue to form in these gullies seasonally. In the upper gully regions, long shadows cast by jagged outcrops allow scientists to determine the heights and depths of landforms by measuring the length of the shadows cast by the ridges onto the gully floor.
6145-45049455
Nili Fossae, once considered a potential landing spot for the Mars Science Laboratory, has one of the largest, most diverse exposures of clay minerals as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-58966912
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the Claritas Fossae region, characterized by systems of graben. A graben forms when a block of the planet's crust drops down between two faults, due to extension, or pulling, of the crust.
6145-45126272
Gullies are relatively common features in the steep slopes of crater walls, possibly formed by dry debris flows, movement of carbon dioxide frost, or perhaps the melting of ground ice, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45077340
The objective of this observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is to examine a light-toned deposit in a region of what is called 'chaotic terrain' at the base of the Valles Marineris canyon system.
6145-44962655
A south-facing escarpment in the Northwest Hellas region that was targeted for the phyllosilicates shows instances of bluish rock in this enhanced color image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45071723
The tropics of Mars are commonly littered with small bright ripples that were somehow shaped by the wind. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter might provide a valuable clue to the formation of transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) elsewhere on Mars.
6145-45086728
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observes the southeast rim of Hale Crater, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) in diameter and located in the mid-southern latitudes just north of the massive Argyre basin.
6145-45047449
Sandwiched between a crater nearly 4 kilometer across and a much larger and older crater over 15-kilometers in diameter is this small impact crater with light-toned material exposed in its ejecta. This image is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45096668
This enhanced-color image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies in the northern wall of an unnamed crater in Utopia Planitia. The banked, sinuous shape of the gully channels suggest that water was involved in their formation.
6145-44543552
Active sand dunes are common on Mars, and have a variety of surface textures. The braided texture visible here may be typical of dunes that are transitioning into sand sheets.
6145-45260184
In this observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, these two craters perched at the edge of an outflow channel, appear to have lost a portion of their crater rims during a flood event. Alternatively, it is also possible that the craters impacted the edge of the outflow channel after the flood occurred and we are seeing the difference in the strength of the material impacted.
6145-45131943
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows that layered deposits in Melas Basin may have been deposited during the growth of a delta complex.
1746-19671116
This image shows a number of unusual, quasi-circular structures from 300 to 600 meters in diameter that apparently formed within bright flows in Meridiani Planum.
6145-45292468
A field of sand dunes occupies this frosty 5-kilometer diameter crater in the high-latitudes of the northern plains of Mars. Some dunes have separated from the main field and appear to be climbing up the crater slope along a gully-like form. The surface of the main dune field is characterized by a series of dark-toned polygonal patterns. These may be the result of seasonal frost processes. Several of the steeper dune slopes, pointing in the downwind direction, host narrow furrows suggesting the start of gully formation. The crater floor contains a variety of textures, including lobate and striped patterns that indicate seasonal thaw caused by sublimating ice. Broad downslope movement of materials on the crater slopes opposite the dune field superficially resemble gullies, except that they are generally not defined by distinctive alcoves, incised channels, or sediment aprons. These are the hallmarks of gullies elsewhere on the planet.
6145-45097460
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft nicely captures several influential geologic processes that have shaped the landscape of Lycus Sulci.
6145-45089317
This image shows a possible landing site for the 2020 Mission: Jezero Crater, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45129475
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows layered deposits in Uzboi Vallis which sometimes occur in alcoves along the valley and/or below where tributaries enter it.
6145-44484440
The sedimentary history of Mars is important to understanding climate change and the evolution of Mars. Sedimentary rocks consist of fine particles carried by the atmosphere and/or water and deposited in generally flat-lying layers, which become indurated (turn into rock) over time. This image covers some steep slopes with good exposures of the bedrock layers, revealing diverse color and textures. A detailed study of many such exposures along with compositional data can be used to reconstruct the sequence of events and interpret the geologic history.
6145-44824365
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows part of Gorgonum Chaos, a large cluster of chaotic terrain found in the southern hemisphere.
6145-54676285
Candidate Mud Volcanoes in Utopia Planitia. Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, has an interesting and complex history. One of the intriguing features is a field of mounds showing circular depressions at their summits. The fact that many of these craters are on top of mounds argues against them being craters created by impacts, as is common on Mars and other planetary bodies across the solar system. There are many processes that can form such landforms, most notably hot lava. However, mud ejected from beneath the surface (through different geologic mechanisms) could also be a possibility. Being able to better understand how these features formed (aided by HiRISE stereo images) is crucial to our understanding of the geologic history of the region. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25898
6145-45264210
converted PNM file
6145-45260171
This image shows partially exposed bedrock within the Koval'sky impact basin, which is on the outskirts of the extensive lava field of Daedalia Planum. Daedalia Planum is located southwest of Arsia Mons, which may be the source responsible for filling the crater with lava flows and ash deposits. On one side, bright bedrock with scattered dark blue spots are seen. The dark blue spots are boulders shedding from the outcrops. The color range of the bedrock provides some information on its composition. The blue color is indicative of the presence of iron-rich minerals that are generally not oxidized (i.e., rusted), unlike most of the ruddy Martian surface. Volcanic rocks are common on Mars. Possible candidate minerals for the bluish materials are often consistent with iron-rich minerals, such as pyroxene and olivine. The ridges may represent remnants of the original surface of the lava flows that filled the Koval'sky impact basin. NB The region is named for M. A. Koval'sky, a Russian astro
6145-44987770
These images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show how the appearance of dark markings on Martian slope changes with the seasons. The marks, called recurrent slope linea extend down slopes during warmer months.
6145-45134468
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is an oblique view of gully deposits from the steep slope of an impact crater.
6145-44836586
In this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, there are at least two distinct geologic units, a light-toned bedrock and a surface veneer of dark-toned material that contains sand dunes.
6145-45092576
In this image from NASA's Mars Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we can see quite a spectacular layering pattern inside an impact crater called Spallanzani.
1746-19671099
This observation shows gullies in a semi-circular trough in Noachis Terra.
6145-45100556
The sinuous ridges in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft display strong characteristics of ancient meandering riverbeds that are preserved as inverted topography.
4389-1133
Polygons in the Utopia Planitia Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
6145-44811014
This image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals meter-scale (yard-scale) surface textures of mesas and knobs in the Aureum Chaos region of Mars. Aureum Chaos is a wide region of plateaus, mesas, and knobs.
6145-45126753
This color composite from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers a portion of the northern central peak of an unnamed, 20-kilometer crater that contains abundant fragmental bedrock called breccia.
6145-44636099
NASA is considering Eberswalde crater as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission; the spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2012.
6145-44957234
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers many shallow irregular pits with raised rims, concentrated along ridges and other topographic features.
6145-44995809
Two parallel tracks left by the wheels of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover cross rugged ground in this portion of an observation by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec. 11, 2013. The rover itself does not appear in this image.
6145-45134698
Krupac is a relatively young impact crater, but exposes ancient bedrock; it also hosts some of the most impressive recurring slope lineae (RSL) on equatorial Mars outside of Valles Marineris, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-44808420
In the winter a layer of carbon dioxide ice (dry ice) covers the north polar sand dunes as shown by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In the spring the sublimation of the ice (going directly from ice to gas) causes a host of uniquely Martian phenomena.
6145-45088328
The gullies observed in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are within the valley wall of an ancient channel-Nirgal Vallis-a testament to flowing water in Mars' ancient past.
6145-44995808
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is of an east-facing slope in Tithonium Chasma.
6145-45094422
A pedestal crater is when the ejecta from an impact settles around the new crater and is more erosion-resistant than the surrounding terrain as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45126250
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of impact ejecta, a material that is thrown up and out of the surface of a planet as a result of the impact of an meteorite, asteroid or comet.
6145-44804744
Layers of rock in the upper portion of a tall mound near the center of Gale Crater on Mars exhibit a regular thickness of several meters in this image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
6145-45087262
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows several seemingly active gullies and their associated fans near the Argyre region.
6145-44483893
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth. However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars' Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies.
6145-45084147
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is of an approximately 5 kilometer (approx. 3.1 mile) diameter crater that is one of the rare examples of a fresh 'lunar-like' crater on Mars.
6145-45071722
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Vinogradov, an old, 224-kilometer diameter, heavily degraded impact crater in southern Margaritifer Terra.
6145-45111366
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft shows the Curiosity rover currently located on the Naukluft Plateau just north of the Bagnold Dune field.
6145-44628793
Sulfur-Rich Rocks and Dirt (False Color)
6145-44980302
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows one of the first close HiRISE views of the enigmatic Valles Marineris interior layered deposits.
6145-44982623
In this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we see an intersection of several fractures on the floor of Echus Chasma. One 'sector' appears to have been filled by a more recent viscous lava flow.
1746-19671122
The Nili Fossae region of Mars is one of the largest exposures of clay minerals discovered by the OMEGA spectrometer on Mars Express and mapped in greater detail by the CRISM spectrometer on MRO.
6145-45064365
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image on 27 June 2014, when Curiosity had just crossed the edge of the 3-sigma landing.
6145-58971455
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an area of layered deposits in Candor Chasma. Sheets and dunes of dark-toned sand cover the light-toned, layered bedrock.
6145-45111650
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is of Noctis Labyrinthus, a highly tectonized region immediately to the west of Valles Marineris. It formed when Mars' crust stretched itself apart.
6145-45047450
Many valleys occur all over Mars that reveal an extensive ancient history of liquid water erosion. This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a complex valley network near Idaeus Fossae.
6145-44654288
ISS013-E-65526 (8 Aug. 2006) --- Issaouane Dune Sea, Eastern Algeria is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station. This view from one of the smaller dune seas in the central Sahara shows the complex but regular patterns produced by winds in deserts where abundant sand is available. Geologists now know that dune seas (also called ergs) comprise at least three orders of dune size. In this image the largest and oldest appear here as chains oriented about 60 degrees apart, that is, one oriented almost north-south, the other southwest-northeast. The "streets" between the dune chains (also called mega-dunes) are swept clean of sand in places, revealing the original surface, with light colored muds and salt derived from very occasional rains. The chains have probably taken hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate, starting when the Sahara began to become significantly dry roughly 2.5 million years ago. Rivers became smaller, fa
6145-54676289
Bumpy, Expanded Craters. Expanded craters on Mars are thought to occur when the upper slopes of an impact crater in an ice-rich target sublimate (going directly from a solid to a gaseous state). The vaporizing ice makes the walls retreat while the lower slopes are armored by dust and debris, resulting in a funnel-shaped formation. The expanded craters in this image have an unusually bumpy texture in the outer apron where the sublimation occurred. The bumps are too large to be boulders. This suggests that the ice had concentrations of other material. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25900
6145-44836584
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the southern latitude Hale Crater, a rather large, pristine elliptical crater possessing sharp features, impact melt bodies ponded throughout the structure and few overprinting impact craters.
6145-44997748
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows cones with summit pits that are very similar to cinder cones on Earth. They are also very well-preserved, peppered by only small impact craters, so they must be geologically young.
1746-19663315
This image is from the floor of the Hellas Basin, a 1,400-mile wide impact crater. The landforms look almost as if they flowed like a viscous material. This image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HI RISE) camera on NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec. 26, 2009.
6145-44843367
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the surface outside this large crater is relatively dark, while the interior wall of the crater exposes lighter, layered bedrock of diverse colors.
6145-44512954
Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978. Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains.
6145-44558361
Tooting Crater is one of the youngest craters on Mars that is larger than 20-kilometers in diameter. Relatively low areas inside and outside the crater are covered by a distinctive pitted and ponded material. The pits are not impact craters, as they lack ejecta and are very closely spaced. There is one small impact crater near the lower right corner of our picture, which is much more circular than the pits and has a raised rim and ejecta. One interpretation is that this pitted and ponded material was hot impact ejecta from Tooting, and loss of volatiles from this material or underlying materials created the pits as it cooled.
6145-44808419
This image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows part of Cerberus Fossae, a long system of extensional (normal) faults arranged in trough-bounding (graben-bounding) pairs.
6145-45096665
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is part of a proposed landing site in Aram Dorsum for the ExoMars Rover, planned for launch in 2018. Upper layers of light toned sediments have been eroded, leaving a lower surface which appears dark.
6145-44968174
These craters on Tharsis are first visible as new dark spots observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera (CTX), which can view much larger areas, and then imaged by HiRISE for a close-up look.
4201-62785
Butterfly fossil showing wing structure, Spain
6145-45092572
This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the target of the Ares 3 landing site from 'The Martian' by Andy Weir.
6145-44617349
ISS009-E-12441 (18 June 2004) --- Gebel (or Mount) Edmonstone is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 9 crewmember on the International Space Station (ISS). Mount Edmonstone is a flat-topped mesa located near the Dahkla Oasis south of Cairo, Egypt. Gebel Edmonstone is a remnant of an eroding scarp that extends for over 200 kilometers (125 miles) east-southeast to west-northwest (visible in the upper left corner of this image). The flat caprock of both the scarp and Mount Edmonstone is chalky limestone underlain by fossil-bearing shale and fine-grained sedimentary rocks. This photograph has been “stretched” to enhance color variations in the various rock and soil units. The color variations reflect differences in composition (or weathering) of the various rock units. The limestone unit capping Gebel Edmonstone and the adjacent scarp ranges from white to gray in color, while the underlying fine-grained sedimentary layers are blue-gray. Hill slope pathways for
6145-44484944
The mid-latitudes of Mars are mostly covered with smooth material that scientists have suspected to be ice for some time. The ground is uniform and dusty and does not reveal many clues about what lies beneath the surface. However, sometimes a feature like a cliff cuts through the terrain and gives us a glimpse of this buried icy material. The cliff in this image is one example out of a few dozen that are known. The bright material on the cliff face is icy and is preserved only because the cliff points away from the equator, so it is shaded most of the time. Faint bands on the cliff might indicate layers in the ice that record different climate conditions. We do not know how much time this ice took to accumulate here, but studies elsewhere on Mars indicate that material like this is sometimes at least tens of millions of years old.
4389-1138
Gully Channels in a Crater Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
6145-45258154
It's not that common to see craters on steep hills, partly because rocks falling downhill can quickly erase such craters. Here, however, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observes a small impact has occurred on the sloping wall of a larger crater and is well-preserved. Dark, blocky ejecta from the smaller crater has flowed downhill (to the west) toward the floor of the larger crater. Understanding the emplacement of such ejecta on steep hills is an area of ongoing research.
6145-45064646
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers a location that has been imaged several times to look for changes in gullies.
6145-54684340
. A Map of Curiosity's Difficult Climb. This map shows the route NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took from May into July 2023 to complete the most difficult climb of the mission. Starting in Marker Band Valley (the darker area at the top center), the route shows white dots for each stop the rover made. As it struggled to crest a 23-degree slope covered with slippery sand and wheel-size rocks, the rover experienced a number of faults that stopped it mid-drive. That area can be seen just below the center of the image, where a cluster of the white dots bunch up. Rover drivers ultimately decided to veer off 492 feet (150 meters), approaching part of the slope with an incline below 15 degrees and less sand and fewer rocks (the part of the route farthest to the right). Curiosity was able to crest the slope there, then drove back to view a cluster of impact craters (the pockmarked terrain towards the bottom of the image). Curiosity is now heading further up Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilomet
1746-19661435
The Huygens probe was delivered to Image of surface of Saturns moon Titan obtained by the Huyghens probe taken to Titan by the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA. Science Astronomy Space Travel
1746-29965822
Close-Up of the Face a feature in the cydonia region of Mars
6145-44565083
Tharsis
6145-58971762
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the drill on the end of its robotic arm to collect a sample from a rock nicknamed Sequoia on Oct. 17, 2023, the 3,980th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mission was naming science targets after locations in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range at the time this sample was collected. This image was captured by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam.
6145-44564614
Io's volcanic plains are shown in this archival image from NASA's Voyager 1, which spans an area about 1030 km (640 miles) from left to right. Numerous volcanic calderas and lava flows are visible.
6145-45113944
STS091-707-008 (2-12 June 1998) --- Photographed by one of the STS-91 crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, this area northwest of Monterrey, Mexico is a good example of a tectonic landform where the Earth's crust folds in a "wrinkled-rug" style. The Sierra Madrid Oriental is the easternmost extension of the North American Cordillera. The complicated structure of this arid region is the affects of wind eroding the softer rocks and leaving the harder ones making it look like it may be a photo of another planet. Monclova, Mexico is located near the center of the photo.
6145-44547144
A portion of western Eistla Regio is displayed in this three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus as seen by NASA's Magellan spacecraft.
6145-45297715
Every spring the sun shines on the side of the stack of layers at the North Pole of Mars known as the north polar layered deposits. The warmth destabilizes the ice and blocks break loose. When they reach the bottom of the more than 500 meter tall cliff face, the blocks kick up a cloud of dust. (In the cutout, the top layer of the north polar cap is to the lower left.) The layers beneath are different colors and textures depending on the amount of dust mixed with ice.
6145-45070634
This crater captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a strange appearance, as if the crater has feet with toes sticking out of two sides, likely caused by a highly oblique impact event.
4048-10969
Mars landscape showing shows flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton Crater. These might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today. Aug. 5, 2011.
1746-19671061
This view of Moe & Pumpkin, part of the Bookshelf at the back of the Rock Garden to the southwest of the lander, was produced by combining the 'Super Panorama' frames from the IMP camera
6145-44904523
Tracks from the first drives of NASA's Curiosity rover are visible in this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rover is seen where the tracks end.
6145-45084145
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. At this time of year only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted.
1746-19671118
This observation shows a fresh, approximately 7.5 kilometer diameter crater that resides in a larger crater in the Southern hemisphere. MRO.
6145-44546906
A corona is displayed in this computer-simulated view from NASA's Magellan spacecraft of the surface of Venus.
6145-44631647
'Jibsheet' in False Color
6145-45093875
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a lacy network of many fine channels associated with jets in the subliming carbon dioxide of the springtime.
4389-1913
Martian North Pole in 3-D
6145-44631650
'Methuselah' in False Color
6145-44548413
Maat Mons is displayed in this computer generated three-dimensional perspective of the surface of Venus. This NASA Magellan image was released on April 22, 1992.
4389-1097
Spider-Like Terrain at Mars' South Pole from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
6145-44484438
Massive deposits of sediments rich in hydrated sulfates are found in central Valles Marineris. Such deposits on Earth are soft and easily eroded, and that appears to be true on Mars as well. There are large gullies and sediment fans along the steepest slopes. Elsewhere on Mars, such slopes are actively eroding in before-and-after HiRISE images, so this would be a good location to observe again in a future year. Linear gaps in data coverage on the bright sun-facing slopes are locations where the image data is saturated.
1746-28998671
Nili Patera; one of the most active dune fields on Mars. It is continuously monitored with the HI RISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, a science instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters observation is one of the more recent Nili images, acquired on March 1, 2014.
6145-44512719
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars: Channeled Aprons in a Small Crater within Newton Crater
6145-44966484
This image from NASA's rover Curiosity shows that many holes in the rock are occupied by what appears to be material different from that of the main rock itself.