It might be nicknamed the red planet, but there’s a lot more to Mars than just rocks and red dust. NASA’s images show plenty of hidden beauty and intrigue.
We’ve been combing the archive to pick a selection of the best and most interesting images NASA has compiled.
String on Mars?
The Perseverance rover has detected something unusual on the surface of Mars. When on the move, its hazard avoidance camera captured this image of what looks like string on the planet’s surface.
Nasa has said that it’s likely left over from the rover’s landing but it’s not in the landing spot, so must have blown there. Nice to imagine it’s alien in origin though.
Gator-back rocks
Another of theCuriosity rover’s panoramic photographsfrom the foothills of Mount Sharp shows a curious rock formation that the team has informally nicknamed “gator-back” rocks due to the scaly appearance of the area.
The entire view is worth soaking in, but this spot is particularly interesting as these jagged rocks can be a problem for the rover’s wheels. So much so that Nasa has had to avoid driving over them.
A door on Mars
In May 2022 Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an image that was quickly sensationalised on as “a doorway on Mars”.
Thewide landscape viewaround Mount Sharp seemed to show an interesting portal in the rock face. Leaving many to speculate that this might be another indicator of life on the red planet.
Nasa was quick to point out that the door stands at just 29 centimetres tall, about the same as a dog door. And not really as exciting as it first appears.
Flowers on Mars
This image from the surface of Mars was captured by the Curiosity rover and shows an interesting view that looks like a sandy floral-like formation on the planet.
According to planetary scientist,Abigail Fraemant, it’s actually formed by minerals precipitating from water.
A hole on Mars
This hole on the surface of Mars was created by the Curiosity rover. Drilled in 2013, the hole was created as part of the rover’s efforts to help NASA analyse the surface of the planet.
A massive worm?
This image from 2018 appears to show a large crater on the surface of Mars that looks like the planet is home to a gigantic alien worm.
It’s actually a heavily cratered region of the planet located near the Martian equator. An impressive sight nonetheless.
From Mars, With Love
Way back in 1999, the Mars Orbiter Camera captured this love heart-shaped formation on the surface of the red planet.
The shape is apparently the result of a geological collapse in the area which has resulted in a 1.4mile wide pit.
Dust devils
Captured by NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Obiter, this image from 2012 shows a large dust devil casting a snake-like shape over the surface of the red planet.
It’s thought that the dust devil was about 800 metres tall and 30 metres in diameter.
South Pole Spiders
Fear not, these are not giant alien spiders, but instead, are cracks on the surface of Mars. This was captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009 and shows a region of the South Pole of the red planet where cracks have appeared on the surface.
It is thought that these cracks have appeared as carbon dioxide has escaped from melting ice and dissipated into the atmosphere. We’re just glad they aren’t moving.
Curiosity selfie
What collection of images of Mars would be complete without a selfie by a Mars rover? This shot of the Curiosity rover wastaken in 2015. This image is actually a collection of images that at the “Mojave” site where the rover was busy drilling and collecting rock samples for analysis.
Other similar images of Curiosity busying itself with analysis of the landscape were captured atRocknest,John KleinandWindjana. We love the idea of these rovers roaming the surface of the planet carrying out important tests on behalf of the whole of mankind.
