Extraordinary images reveal the mysteries of Mars

Space

Extraordinary images reveal the mysteries of Mars

From windswept craters to frigid ice caps, explore Martian landscapes through the eyes of NASA’s orbiters, probes and rovers

By David Stock

15 January 2025

The Curiosity rover faced a five-mile (eight-kilometer) trek from its landing site to the foothills of Aeolis Mons, but driving across bedrock eroded into sharp points was destroying its wheels. In early 2014, the mission directed the rover across a sand drift at Dingo Gap, leaving behind the jagged bedrock for kinder, gravel-filled valley bottoms. — Dingo gap in Gale crater
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS

From H. G. Wells’s alien invaders in The War of the Worlds to The Martian‘s abandoned astronaut, we have long been inspired by the idea that life could reside on Mars – human or otherwise. Flybys, orbiters and landers, including NASA’s Perseverance rover and its aerial sidekick, Ingenuity, have made Mars one of the best understood planets in our solar system. Now, more than ever, we are closer to answering the question: could life exist there?

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its sharp-eyed HiRISE camera to photograph the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the surface. This photo commemorates Opportunity?s arrival at the 800-meter-diameter Victoria crater on the 951st day of Opportunity?s mission. The rover is visible as a tiny speck at about 10 o?clock. ? NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona — An impact crater at Meridiani Planum
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Mars Odyssey brought new imaging technology to Mars with its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), which can see the surface in both day and night. In 2006 the THEMIS team began combining daytime images (which show topography in black and white) with nighttime views (which show temperature, from cold blue to warm red). In the Martian night, bedrock exposed on the flatlying Meridiani Planum and in crater rims retains heat, so is relatively warm compared to dust-covered areas. PAGE 158 — Mars’s surface temperature
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University

A new book, , celebrates the missions that have enriched our understanding of Mars and looks to a future where humans explore the Red Planet.

A camera mounted to the top deck of the Perseverance rover captured the deployment and inflation of its supersonic parachute during its descent to Mars in 2021. The red-and-white stripes both help engineers map the motions of the parachute and encode two secret messages: the geographic coordinates of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lab motto ?dare mighty things.? PAGE 46 ? NASA/JPL-Caltech — Perseverance photographs the parachute used to slow its landing
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Pictured from top, main picture: the Dingo gap in Gale crater, which NASA’s Curiosity rover crossed; an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, shot by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera; Mars’s surface temperature, from cold blue to warm red, captured by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft’s Thermal Emission Imaging System; Perseverance photographs the parachute used to slow its landing; a rocket-powered stage lowers Perseverance onto Mars in a “sky crane” manoeuvre.