This image taken by the Mast Camera highlights the interesting geology of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed. Prior to the rover’s landing on Mars, observations from orbiting satellites indicated that the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, seen here. Those orbiter observations did not reveal hydrated minerals in the higher, overlying strata. The MastCam data now reveal a strong discontinuity in the strata above and below the line of white dots, agreeing with the data from orbit. Strata overlying the line of white dots are highly inclined (dipping from left to right) relative to lower, underlying strata. The inclination of these strata above the line of white dots is not obvious from orbit. This provides independent evidence that the absence of hydrated minerals on the upper reaches of Mount Sharp may coincide with a very different formation environment than lower on the slopes. The train of white dots may represent an “unconformity,” or an area where the process of sedimentation stopped.
NASA
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A chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this postcard from NASA’s Curiosity rover. The image shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover’s eventual science destination. Scientists enhanced the color, seen here in an image released by NASA, in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain.
NASA
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A color image released by NASA, taken to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover. The image was taken on August 23, 2012 and looks south-southwest from the rover’s landing site. The gravelly area around Curiosity’s landing site is visible in the foreground. Farther away, about a third of the way up from the bottom of the image, the terrain falls off into a depression (a swale). Beyond the swale, in the middle of the image, is the boulder-strewn, red-brown rim of a moderately-sized impact crater. Father off in the distance, there are dark dunes and then the layered rock at the base of Mount Sharp. Some haze obscures the view, but the top ridge, depicted in this image, is 10 miles away.
NASA/AFP/Getty Images
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After releasing exciting images of Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover is undergoing a crucial four-day brain transplant. Engineers will update the rover’s software, which is currently in its flight stage to prepare it for its further missions on Mars
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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The layers of exposed rock are thought to hold a wealth of Mars’ geologic history, making it the main target of exploration for scientists who will use the rover to seek evidence of whether the planet most similar to Earth might now harbor or once have hosted key ingredients for microbial life.
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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The layers of exposed rock are thought to hold a wealth of Mars’ geologic history, making it the main target of exploration for scientists who will use the rover to seek evidence of whether the planet most similar to Earth might now harbor or once have hosted key ingredients for microbial life.
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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The layers of exposed rock are thought to hold a wealth of Mars’ geologic history, making it the main target of exploration for scientists who will use the rover to seek evidence of whether the planet most similar to Earth might now harbor or once have hosted key ingredients for microbial life.
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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The view shows the mountains looming in the distance in front of Curiosity. After successfully landing on the Red Planet on August 5, the rover produced incredible pictures showing exactly what you would see if you were standing on the surface of Mars on a late afternoon.
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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This view shows a formation, named Mount Sharp which stands at the center of the vast, ancient impact crater and several miles from where Curiosity touched down at the end of an eight-month voyage across 352 million miles of space.
NASA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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This image shows a color panorama of Gale Crater taken by the Curiosity rove. A low-quality version was released earlier. Curiosity is on a two-year mission to study whether Gale could support microbial life.
NASA/AP Photo
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One of the first images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the evening of August 5 and transmitted to Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The Rover is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms.
NASA
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Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity team member Miguel San Martin, Chief Engineer, Guidance, Navigation, and Control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, left, celebrates with Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), right, after the successful landing of Curiosity on the surface of Mars.
AP Photo
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This artist’s concept depicts the rover Curiosity.
NASA JPL
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This artist’s rendering depicts the moment immediately after NASA’s Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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An artist’s concept of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft approaching Mars.
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An image of Gale Crater on Mars, top left. The ellipse is about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide. The view is looking straight down on the crater from orbit. Gale Crater is 96 miles in diameter. Mount Sharp rises about 3.4 miles above the floor of Gale Crater.
REUTERS
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A dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface.
AFP/Getty Images
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A dune field in Aonia Terra shows sand dunes with a variety of morphologies. Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500 telescopic observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.
SIPA
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The region called the Echus Chasma look surprisingly like some parts of Earth.
NASA
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A color-enhanced image showing sand dunes trapped in an impact crater in Noachis Terra region.
ZUMAPRESS.com
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A well-preserved impact crater about 6 or 7 kilometers wide from rim to rim.
ZUMAPRESS.com
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Mars’ seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice has eroded many beautiful terrains as it sublimates (goes directly from ice to vapor) in the Martian spring.
NASA
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The Melas Chasma canyon on Mars, exposes layered deposits that may be sediments from an old lake or they could be windblown sediment deposits and volcanic ash.
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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A dark spot between Mars’ northern lowlands and southern highland.
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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An impressive cliff is located in the eastern part of Echus Chasma. Gigantic water falls may once have plunged over these cliffs on to the valley floor. The remarkably smooth valley floor was later flooded by basaltic lava.
Getty Images
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The Echus Chasma, which resembles Arizona’s Grand Canyon, is an approximately 62.1 miles long and 6.2 miles wide.
ESA/AP Photo
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The smooth surfaces of angular and rounded rocks seen in this image of the martian terrain released by NASA may be the result of wind-polishing debris. The pictue was taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.
NASA
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The windswept vista northward, left, to northeastward, right, from the location where NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover ‘Opportunity’ is spending its fifth Martian winter.
EPA
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The sand dunes within the Hellespontus region of Mars. The sand appears to come from the layered mesas and knobs, features that have been eroded by powerful winds.
AP Photo/NASA
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Gully features apparently carved by seepage and runoff of liquid water on Mars in the geologically recent past. The image was taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) aboard NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS).
AP
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A view of Eberswalde crater containing a rare case of a martian delta, with well preserved channels which fed the lake in the crater, located in the southern highlands of Mars. The delta deposits and channels together provide a clear indication of liquid surface water during the early history of Mars.
Reuters
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A view of Holden crater located in the southern highlands of Mars.
Reuters
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Mars’ Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum.
REUTERS
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Sawtooth Pattern in Carbon Dioxide Ice on Mars recorded during the month of April through early August 2009.
NASA
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The South Pole residual cap monitoring and change detection on Mars recorded during the month of April through early August 2009.
NASA
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This image shows translucent ice in the North Polar Region of Mars.
AP
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The north polar layered deposits of Mars form a layered stack of dusty ice up to 2 miles thick.
AP Photo/NASA
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A panoramic view of Mars southwest Gusev Crater.
AP
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This image shows many channels from approximately 3 feet to 33 feet wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin.
AP
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Sand dunes at “Endurance Crater.”
AFP/Getty Images
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This image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a rock outcrop dubbed “Longhorn,” and behind it, the sweeping plains of Gusev Crater. On the horizon, the rim of Gusev Crater is clearly visible.
AFP/Getty Images
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This NASA 360-degree digitally-compressed panorama image of Mars made from some of 800 images sent from the Opportunity rover, shows past tracks of Opportunity, left, as well as Opportunity’s dust covered solar panels cross the image bottom and an interior wall of 20-kilometer Endeavour Crater just below the horizon and right of center.
REUTERS
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This image shows layers of “Cape Verde” in “Victoria Crater” taken from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER). This view of Victoria crater is looking north from “Duck Bay” towards the dramatic promontory called “Cape Verde.”
AFP/Getty Images
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This image shows the Dune Field in an Impact Crater Near Cerberus Fossae.
AP Photo/NASA
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This undated image released by the European Space Agency shows of a patch of ice sitting on the floor of a crater near the planet’s north pole.
ESA/AP Photo
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of Mars when it was just 55 million miles away on December 17, 2007.
ESA/UPI
