Photo Gallery: Mars

Sulfur-Rich Rocks on Mars

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

Sulfur-rich rocks in the Columbia Hills on Mars stand out in bright blue in this false-color image from the Spirit rover. Spirit used its rock abrasion tool, or RAT, to grind a hole in the rock. The rock's high sulfur content and softness are probably evidence of past alteration by water.

Mars Rover Opportunity

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL

The exploration rover Opportunity snaps an inadvertent self-portrait as it moves into Endurance Crater on Mars. Like its sister rover Spirit, Opportunity is a robotic geologist, packed with sensors and cameras.

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Mars Rover Spirit

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

The Mars rover Spirit photographs its landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater on Mars. Spirit reached the red planet on January 18, 2004. Its twin, Opportunity, landed on the planet's opposite side. Both rovers were tasked with investigating how past water activity affected Mars's environment.

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Mars's Low Ridge

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

The rover Spirit made this picture of the surface of Mars over 118 Martian days, or sols. (A sol lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.) It was taken from a small hill known as Low Ridge—Spirit's wintering grounds.

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Mars "Blueberries"

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/U.S. Geological Survey

"Blueberries," or iron-rich concretions, dot the Martian surface north of Victoria Crater. The Mars rover Opportunity found the spherules here and at its Eagle Crater landing site. Scientists theorize that a layer beneath the surface in these areas was once soaked with water long enough to form the spherules.

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First Color Image of Mars

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

The Mars rover Spirit snapped this photo of Mars, the first color image ever taken of the red planet. Like other terrestrial planets (Earth, Mercury, and Venus), Mars's surface has been changed by volcanoes, hits from other bodies, and movements of its crust.

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Martian Landscape

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Caltech/University of Arizona

The Mars Pathfinder overlooks the rock-strewn Martian landscape in this image taken over three Martian days in 1997. In the distance are the red planet's Twin Peaks.

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Olympus Mons on Mars

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Looming larger than any volcanic mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars is taller than three Mount Everests and is about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Islands chain. There's no dramatic summit, though—it's nearly as flat as a pancake.

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Husband Hill, Mars

Photograph courtesy NASA/Cornell Univ./JPL/M. Di Lorenzo et al

The rover Spirit moves in to closely inspect an outcrop of rocks near the summit of Husband Hill on Mars. The red planet's geologic features are similar to some of those in Death Valley, California.