Declassified images of Mars. The best photos of Mars since the landing of Curiosity. Bright light on the horizon of Mars

Mars, which is also called the Red Planet, may surprise you in these photos with its by no means red landscapes. Some of the pictures look like amazingly beautiful paintings by a famous artist. See the most beautiful pictures Mars.

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1. Deposit of hematite - iron ore - in the region of the Meridian Plateau. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).

Photos of Mars are so unusual and beautiful that it's hard to believe that these are not paintings. Perhaps the same conclusion was reached by NASA employees who created a web page called "Mars As Art" or "Mars as a work of art." Most of the photos in our gallery are from there - mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/marsasart.

2. This picture was taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Due to an optical illusion dark spots they look like trees in the photo. In fact, these are landslides of the Martian dunes caused by the sublimation of carbon dioxide. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).
3. Chaos Aram - the remains of an eroded impact crater, which is located almost at the very equator of Mars and is covered with a huge amount of iron oxide or ordinary rust. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).
4. Olympus Mons - a huge volcanic crater - its height exceeds 30 kilometers. This is the highest point in the solar system. (Photo: NASA/Seddon/Wikipedia).
5. A crater in the area of ​​the Great Northern Plain, on which an ice cover is visible. During the Martian winter, the ice is covered with another layer of dry ice, carbon dioxide in solid form, which sublimates (turns into gas) in the summer. (Photo: ESA/DLR/Freie Universitat Berlin (G. Neukum)).
6. This photo appears to be the original tattoo, but it's actually an intricate and sinuous pattern created by...dust. On Mars, as on Earth, the wind often blows away the top layers of the soil, exposing the deeper ones. (Photo: ASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).
7. Panoramic photo of the eastern rim of Endeavor Crater, taken from a distance of about 30 kilometers. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell).
8. The Hellas Plain (also known as the Hellas Impact Basin). The cracks visible in the photograph are from 1 to 10 meters wide. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).
9. A swirl of dust on Mars, photographed from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A similar phenomenon exists on Earth. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona).
10. The southeastern slopes of the volcanic crater Olympus - the highest point in the solar system. (Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G. Neukum).
11. A new impact crater, which was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on November 19, 2013. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona). 14. Photo from the Curiosity rover, taken by him during a mission to Mars. Curiosity is drilling holes in the Martian soil to take samples and samples for testing. (Photo: NASA / REUTERS).

An impact crater about three kilometers across

The surface of Mars is a dry and barren wasteland covered with old volcanoes and craters.

Dunes through the eyes of Mars Odyssey

Photographs show that she may be hidden by a single sandstorm that keeps her out of sight for several days. Despite the formidable conditions, Mars is better studied by scientists than any other world in the solar system, except our own, of course.

Since the planet has almost the same slope as the Earth, and it has an atmosphere, it means that there are seasons. The temperature on the surface is about -40 degrees Celsius, but at the equator it can reach +20. There are traces of water on the surface of the planet, and features of the relief formed by water.

Landscape

Let's take a closer look at the surface of Mars, information provided by numerous orbiters, as well as rovers, allows us to fully understand what the red planet is like. Ultra-clear images show dry, rocky terrain covered in fine red dust.

Red dust is actually iron oxide. Everything, from the ground to small stones and rocks, is covered with this dust.

Since there is neither water nor confirmed tectonic activity on Mars, its geological features remain virtually unchanged. Compared to the surface of the Earth, which is undergoing constant changes associated with water erosion and tectonic activity.

Mars surface video

The landscape of Mars is made up of a variety of geological structures. It is home to those known throughout the solar system. That's not all. The most famous canyon in the solar system is the Mariner Valley, also located on the surface of the Red Planet.

Look at the pictures from the rovers, which show a lot of details that are not visible from orbit.

If you have a desire to look at Mars online, then

Surface photo

The images below are images from Curiosity, a rover that is currently actively exploring the red planet.

To view in full screen mode, click on the button on the top right.

Panorama transmitted by the Curiosity rover

This panorama is a section of Gale Crater, where Curiosity conducts its research. The high hill in the center is Mount Sharp, to the right of it you can see the annular rim of the crater in the haze.

To view in full size, save the image to your computer!

These photographs of the surface of Mars are from 2014 and in fact, on this moment, the most recent.

Among all the features of the landscape of Mars, perhaps the most widely publicized are the mesas of Cydonia. Early photographs of the Sedonia region showed the hill as a "human face". However, later, higher resolution shots showed us an ordinary hill.

Planet dimensions

Mars is a pretty small world. Its radius is half that of the Earth, it has a mass that is less than one-tenth of ours.

Dunes, MRO image

More about Mars: The surface of the planet consists mainly of basalt, covered with a thin layer of dust, iron oxide, which has the consistency of talc. Iron oxide (rust, as it is commonly called) gives the planet its characteristic red hue.

Volcanoes

In ancient times, volcanoes erupted continuously on the planet for millions of years. Due to the fact that Mars does not have plate tectonics, huge volcanic mountains formed. Mount Olympus was formed in a similar way and is the largest mountain in the solar system. It is three times higher than Everest. Such volcanic activity may also partly explain the deepest valley in the solar system. The Mariner Valley is believed to have formed as a result of the breakup of material between two points on the Martian surface.

craters

Animation showing changes around a crater in the Northern Hemisphere

There are many impact craters on Mars. Most of these craters remain intact because there are no forces on the planet capable of destroying them. The planet lacks the wind, rain and plate tectonics that cause erosion on Earth. The atmosphere is much thinner than that of Earth, so that even small meteorites can reach the earth.

The current surface of Mars is very different from what it was billions of years ago. Orbiter data has shown that there are many minerals and erosion marks on the planet that indicate the presence of liquid water in the past. It is possible that small oceans and long rivers once completed the landscape. The last remnants of this water were trapped underground in the form of ice.

Total number of craters

There are hundreds of thousands of craters on Mars, of which 43,000 are larger than 5 kilometers in diameter. Hundreds of them were named after scientists or famous astronomers. Craters less than 60 km across have been named after cities on Earth.

The most famous is Hellas Basin. It is 2100 km across and up to 9 km deep. It is surrounded by emissions that stretch for 4000 km from the center.

Crater formation

Most of the craters on Mars probably appeared during the late "heavy bombardment" of our solar system, which occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago. In this period, a large number of craters formed on all celestial bodies in the solar system. Evidence for this event comes from studies of lunar samples, which showed that most of the rocks were created during this time interval. Scholars cannot agree on the reasons for this bombardment. According to the theory, the orbit of the gas giant changed and as a result, the orbits of objects in the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt became more eccentric, reaching the orbits of the terrestrial planets.

Orbiters and rovers exploring the Red Planet constantly replenish the collections of researchers and amateurs with numerous images - sometimes strange, almost fantastic and completely unexpected for scientists. Let's consider the most interesting moments.

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Mars attracts the attention of people with its similarity to Earth: similar mass, approximately equal amount of sunlight, signs of the presence of water, and maybe life. Moreover, Mars is older than the Earth by about 100 million years, which means that by now reasonable Martians could achieve much more progress than earthlings. It should be noted that we already know a lot about Mars: scientists are almost sure that millions of years ago it was a water-rich planet with a comfortable climate. But there are plenty of mysteries. Orbiters and rovers send a lot of pictures of the Red Planet, and some frames cause a real storm of passions.

Valley of the Pyramids

In 1971, NASA's Viking 1 probe took one of the most famous images of Mars. A photo of an area called Cydonia showed a giant stone structure with a face resembling an Egyptian sphinx. This sensational 1.5-km statue was also accompanied by a "scatter" of rocks similar to the Egyptian pyramids.

A photo of an area called Cydonia showed a giant stone structure with a face resembling an Egyptian sphinx

The publication of the images spawned an avalanche of articles, books, films and video games about the hardworking Martians who were not too lazy to build a giant human face to impress future generations of earthlings. There were many theories: from the "star gate" between the Martian and Egyptian pyramids to the library of incredible knowledge left to us by the alien forefathers.

Because of all this hype, photographing the "Martian valley of the pyramids" (and no one called Cydonia otherwise) has become one of the main tasks for NASA's new Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) probe. He arrived at Mars in September 1997 - after 18 years of heated debate, and the first coveted picture was taken only on April 5, 1998. The MGS camera was 10 times more sensitive than the Viking camera, and thousands of Internet users were eagerly waiting for NASA to post the coveted image in the public domain.

Later shots from a different angle showed that the "face of the sphinx" is actually an ordinary rock.

As a result, no one was satisfied with the resulting picture: no face was visible on it, only an ordinary rock. However, the "contactees" continued to believe, especially since MGS photographed the valley through a thin layer of clouds, and many details were lost.

We had to wait a long time for the next picture - it was taken on April 8, 2001 on a cloudless summer day. For maximum quality photography even had to change the orientation of the probe.

This is how the photo story of the "greatest mystery of Mars" looks like,

Alas, now everyone was able to see that the "face of the sphinx" is actually an ordinary rock, and the sensational photo of "Viking-1" is just a play of light, shadow, imperfect technology and human imagination. Thus ended the story of the "greatest mystery of Mars", but it was after it that thousands of enthusiasts around the world began to peer into the pictures of the Red Planet and find unusual things on them.

Snowman

In November 2007, the Spirit rover at the base of a plateau called the Home Plate took a picture that caused a real storm of discussion. The panoramic camera of the rover photographed not some kind of "overwhelming" artifact, such as the ruins of a million-year-old metropolis or the wreckage of a spaceship, but a real living alien. Thanks to the attentiveness of Internet users in the lower left corner, almost at the very edge of the picture, something very reminiscent of the figure of a Bigfoot, confidently walking through the desert of the Red Planet, was found. Worst of all, nothing was written about this undeniably remarkable object in the official annotation for the image on the NASA website. Conspiracy theorists immediately saw this as a sign and thought that inattentive censors missed a photo of a representative of an extraterrestrial race, the existence of which the US government has long been aware of.

Thanks to the attentiveness of Internet users in the lower left corner, almost at the very edge of the picture, something very reminiscent of the figure of a Bigfoot, confidently walking through the desert of the Red Planet, was found.

The figure in the photo is indeed very similar to a humanoid, but there are some nuances that put an end to the bewitching version of the first contact with extraterrestrial life. First of all, the Spirit rover does not have the perfect high-resolution color camera that Curiosity has. Therefore, color panoramic images are "assembled" from several photographs taken with a black and white camera through a pair of filters with an interval of several minutes. This fact alone leads us to the conclusion that the humanoid would have to freeze for 10 minutes in its dynamic pose in order to do well in the final panoramic image, consisting of a total of 154 individual photographs. In addition, a careful observer will notice that the figure of an alien is located on a piece of rock, which is located at a short distance from the rover. More specifically, the alien was less than five meters away from Spirit.

NASA scientists are sure that the next Martian sensation was just a play of light and shadow on a bizarrely weathered rock.

This means that the height of the Martian is not at all impressive - only 6 cm. However, enthusiasts of the search for extraterrestrial civilizations can find factual material in this: for example, the small stature of aliens could explain how they manage to hide howling civilization from our cameras. However, NASA scientists have a different opinion and are sure that the next Martian sensation was just a play of light and shadow on a bizarrely weathered rock.

Under the shadow of the Martian forest

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken many pictures showing objects that look like unusual, attractive, unearthly beauty vegetation. The photo shows long dark trees, shimmering with a metallic sheen, incomprehensible "hair", similar to thickets of bushes, dark fluffy spots of "moss".

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took many pictures showing objects that look like unusual, attractive unearthly beauty vegetation

Scientists are unequivocally sure that this is not vegetation at all, but mainly geological formations caused by the change of seasons. In winter, some regions of Mars experience snow from frozen carbon dioxide. In spring, it melts very quickly, turns into a gaseous state, and jets of gas throw out the lower, darker layers of soil to the surface.

But be that as it may, the picture is really amazingly beautiful and worthy of the artist’s brush no less than living earthly forests.

Airship hangar

In July 2010, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed an unusual object that looked like a huge hangar. It is located at coordinates 13°19"50.55"N; 115°35"10.15"W next to a perfectly round crater resembling the sand-covered dish of the Arecibo radio telescope.

In the glare of sunlight, an elongated object hundreds of meters long really resembles an artificial polished structure.

In the glare of sunlight, an elongated object hundreds of meters long really resembles an artificial polished structure. However, a higher resolution black and white image shows that the "hangar" looks more like an unusual sand dune or a rock covered with sand. Nevertheless, those who wish can see in it both the geometrically correct hull of the spacecraft, and a large boathouse with a black shadow from the entrance.

NASA's Curiosity rover has been working on Mars for almost half a year and has photographed several mysterious objects, the origin of which has caused considerable interest to non-specialists.

Along with such "little things" as a stone of an almost perfect pyramidal shape and a scattering of incomprehensible stone "peas", two pictures stand out, which show objects that look like pieces of plastic.

NASA's Curiosity rover has been working on Mars for almost half a year and has photographed several mysterious objects, the origin of which has aroused considerable interest among non-specialists.

On the 61st day of its mission, October 7, 2012, Curiosity was taking routine pictures of the Martian surface and came across a bright object that looked like a piece of polyethylene about 1 cm long. The rover was delayed for a day so that it could take a detailed photograph of an incomprehensible little thing.

After studying the images, scientists came to the conclusion that this is indeed a piece of plastic, but this is not an artifact of a lost civilization, but part of the rover itself.

A tiny object that looks like a flattened pearl was originally sprinkled with Martian sand

However, on December 19, in the Rocknest region, the rover sifted through the Martian sand and again came across an incomprehensible shiny object. At the same time, a tiny object, similar to a flattened pearl, was originally sprinkled with Martian sand, that is, it definitely did not fall off the rover. NASA experts have confirmed that this is not part of the rover, but most likely a fragment of a larger stone located under the sand at a greater depth. Considering that traces of a stream dried up a long time ago were found near the find, the appearance of a shiny pebble does not seem like something fantastic, but many saw an artificial object or plant in it.

Monolith on Phobos

Not only Mars was "noted" by mysterious objects. On its satellite - Phobos - there is also something to see. We are talking about an object informally called "monolith". The object was photographed in August 1998 by the Mars Global Surveyor and named for its resemblance to an alien artifact from the science fiction film A Space Odyssey 2001. This is a vertical triangular prism 85 m high with "suspiciously" correct proportions and sharp edges. Such an unusual shape of the rock attracted the attention of the press and they began to talk about the monolith. It is interesting that they are still talking about it, although NASA said that this is an ordinary rock - just an unusual shape. At the same time, Mars also has a similar monolith (-7.2S; 267.4E), which NASA experts call an "ordinary boulder" that does not have a clear rectangular shape only because of the pixelation of the image. As you know, digital photos have square pixels, which makes the edges of all objects taken with low resolution straight. In addition, on Earth there are a lot of rocks and stones of almost regular rectangular shape. It should also be noted that in the same photograph of Phobos there are many similar rocks and ledges, although, of course, none of them has such a regular triangular shape.

Both Mars and Phobos have a "monolith"

However, astronaut Buzz Aldrin added fuel to the fire, who said: "There is a strange object on Phobos with a very unusual shape. You should definitely visit the satellites of Mars." From the point of view of searching for traces of a developed lost civilization, this looks logical - Mars, apparently, has undergone a large-scale catastrophe, and geological processes for millions, they were supposed to erase any noticeable traces of intelligent life from the surface of the Red Planet. On the other hand, on the airless dead Phobos, some artifacts could be preserved.

One way or another, the monoliths on Phobos and Mars will still keep their mysteries, since their thorough study is not planned in the coming years. In 2007, the Canadian Space Agency announced plans for the PRIME mission: near the monolith on Phobos, it was supposed to land unmanned vehicle, but no date has yet been set for this mission. Perhaps the secret of the monolith could be revealed by the Russian automatic interplanetary station Phobos-Grunt, but its launch in November 2011 ended in disaster.

Is the answer close?

According to experts in the field of psychology, the vast majority of alien "artifacts" are a consequence of a special property of our brain, which "wants" to see familiar objects where they are not. Because of this, we see someone's face in the pattern of clouds, a human figure in the interweaving of trees, and so on. The same applies to photographs of other planets: in a pile of stones we see the ruins of a city, in unusual stones and rocks - skeletons, buildings, skulls, and so on. For example, in a photo taken in November 1999 by the Mars Global Surveyor probe, the Promethei Rupes region is visible with a light area resembling a giant "valentine" shape. This "heart" has almost perfectly even contours, as if it was painted by a talented artist. However, hardly anyone believes that many years ago the Martians drew a 255-meter postcard "from Mars to earthlings with love."

This "heart" has almost perfectly even contours, as if it was painted by a talented artist

Nevertheless, people will continue to make new telescopes, launch new probes, peer into space photographs and see in them disturbing signs of life and alien intelligence. It is in our nature, and this, perhaps, is the meaning of our existence.

Mikhail Levkevich

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The Curiosity rover landed on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2012 to Mars. The rover is an autonomous chemical laboratory several times larger and heavier than the previous Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The task of the apparatus is to travel from 5 to 20 kilometers in a few months and conduct a full-fledged analysis of Martian soils and atmospheric components. Auxiliary rocket engines were used to perform a controlled and more precise landing. For several years of its work, the rover has provided a lot of interesting data and made many picturesque pictures of the Red Planet.

Experts studying the UFO phenomenon suspect the American aerospace agency NASA of deception of the century. In one of the images recently taken from the surface of the Red Planet by the rover "", some strange flying object hit the camera lens. It is shaped like a flying eagle. Is NASA really lying to us, or does someone just have a very strong imagination?

The High Resolution Camera (HiRISE) has obtained the first mapping images of the surface of Mars from a height of 280 km, with a resolution of 25 cm/pixel!
Layered sediments in the Hebe Canyon.

Potholes on the wall of Gus crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Geysers of Manhattan. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

The surface of Mars is covered with dry ice. Have you ever played with dry ice (with leather gloves, of course!)? Then you probably noticed that dry ice from a solid state immediately passes into a gaseous state, in contrast to ordinary ice which, when heated, turns into water. On Mars, ice domes are made up of dry ice (carbon dioxide). When sunlight hits the ice in the spring, it turns into a gaseous state, which causes surface erosion. Erosion gives rise to bizarre arachnid forms. This image shows eroded channels filled with light-coloured ice that contrasts with the muted red of the surrounding surface. In summer, this ice will dissolve into the atmosphere, leaving only channels that look like ghostly spiders carved into the surface. This type of erosion is typical only for Mars and is not possible under natural conditions on Earth, since the climate of our planet is too warm. Lyricist: Candy Hansen (March 21, 2011) (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Layered mineral deposits at the southern tip of a mid-latitude crater. Light layered deposits are visible in the center of the image; they appear along the edges of the mesas, located on a hill. Similar deposits can be found in many places on Mars, including craters and canyons near the equator. It could be formed as a result of sedimentary processes under the influence of wind and/or water. Dunes or folded formations are visible around the table mountain. The wrinkled structure is the result of differential erosion: when some materials are more easily eroded than others. It is possible that this area was once covered by soft sedimentary deposits, which have now disappeared as a result of erosion. Lyricist: Kelly Kolb (April 15, 2009) (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Underlying rocks protruding from the walls and central hill of the crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Solid structures of the salt mountain in the Ganges canyon. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Someone cut out a piece of the planet! (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Sand mounds formed as a result of spring sandstorms at the North Pole. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

A crater with a central slide, 12 kilometers in diameter. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Cerberus Fossae fault system on the surface of Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

The purple dunes of Proctor Crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Exposures of light rocks on the walls of a table mountain located in the Land of the Sirens. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Spring changes in the Ithaca area. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Dunes of Russell Crater. Photographs taken at Russell Crater are reviewed many times to track changes in the landscape. This image shows isolated dark formations that were likely caused by repeated dust storms that carried light dust off the surface of the dunes. Narrow channels continue to form on the steep surfaces of the sand dunes. The indentations at the end of the channels may be where blocks of dry ice accumulated before passing into a gaseous state. Lyricist: Ken Herkenhoff (March 9, 2011) (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Chutes on the walls of the crater under the exposed rock. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Areas where a lot of olivine may be found. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Ravines between dunes at the bottom of the Kaiser crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Valley Mort. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Sediments at the bottom of the canyon Labyrinth of the night. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Holden crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Crater of St. Mary (Santa Maria Crater). The HiRISE spacecraft took a color image of the crater of St. Mary, which shows the Opportunity robocar, which is stuck near the southeastern rim of the crater. Robocar has been collecting data on this relatively new 300-foot-diameter crater to determine what factors may have contributed to its formation. Pay attention to the surrounding blocks and beam formations. Spectral analysis of CRISM reveals the presence of hydrosulfates in this area. The wreckage of the robocar is located 6 kilometers from the rim of the Endeavor Crater, the main materials of which are hydrosulfates and phyllosilicates. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

The central hill of a large, well-preserved crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Dunes of Russell Crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Layered deposits in the Hebe Canyon. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Eumenides Dorsum yardang area. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Sand movements in the Gusev crater, located near the Columbia Hills. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

The northern ridge of Hellas Planitia, which is possibly rich in olivine. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Seasonal changes in the section of the South Pole, covered with cracks and ruts. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Remains of the south polar caps in spring. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Frozen depressions and ruts on the pole. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Deposits (possibly of volcanic origin) in the Labyrinth of the Night. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Layered outcrops on the wall of a crater located at the North Pole. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Solitary arachnid formation. This formation is the channels carved into the surface, which were formed under the influence of the evaporation of carbon dioxide. The channels are organized radially, widening and deepening as they approach the center. On Earth, such processes do not occur. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Relief of the Athabasca Valley.

Crater cones of the Utopia Plain (Utopia Planitia). The Utopia Planitia is a giant lowland located in the eastern part of the northern hemisphere of Mars, and adjacent to the Great Northern Plain. The craters in this area are of volcanic origin, as evidenced by their shape. Craters are practically not subject to erosion. Cone-shaped mounds or craters like the ones shown in this image are quite common in the northern latitudes of Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Polar sand dunes. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

The interior of Tooting Crater. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Trees on Mars!!! In this photograph, we see something strikingly similar to trees growing among the dunes of Mars. But these trees optical illusion. These are actually dark deposits on the lee side of the dunes. They appeared due to the evaporation of carbon dioxide, "dry ice". The evaporation process begins at the bottom of the ice formation, as a result of this process, gas vapors exit through the pores to the surface and along the way carry out dark deposits that remain on the surface. This image was taken by the HiRISE spacecraft aboard the NASA Orbiter reconnaissance satellite in April 2008. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Victoria Crater. The photo shows deposits on the crater wall. The bottom of the crater is covered with sand dunes. On the left, the wreckage of NASA's Opportunity robocar is visible. The image was taken by the HiRISE spacecraft aboard the NASA Orbiter reconnaissance satellite in July 2009. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Linear dunes. These streaks are linear sand dunes at the bottom of a crater in the Noachis Terra region. The dark areas are the dunes themselves, and the light areas are the gaps between the dunes. The photo was taken on December 28, 2009 by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) astronomical camera aboard the NASA Orbiter reconnaissance satellite. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)