Dr. Phil Varghese

Seen shortly after local Martian sunrise, clouds gather in the summit pit, or caldera, of Pavonis Mons, a giant volcano on Mars, in this image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on N...

Bacolor Crater is a magnificent impact feature about 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide.

How do you converse with a robot nearly one hundred million miles away? In this video, Odyssey team members describe communications with the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft using the antennas of the D...

Large fractures have formed 'steps' in this region of Tempe Terra.

A "Grand Canyon of Mars" slices across the Red Planet near its equator.

A small section of Dao Vallis in shown in this VIS image. Dao Vallis is a major channel that drains into Hellas Planitia

This animation shows how NASA's Curiosity rover communicates with Earth via two of NASA's Mars orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Odyssey, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express....

Continuing our survey of non-crater dune fields brings us to this group of dunes in Aonia Terra. The daytime IR illustrates the warmth of the dune material compared to the surrounding materials.

Snow falls and ice and frost form on Mars, too. NASA's spacecraft on and orbiting the Red Planet reveal the similarities to and differences from how we experience winter on Earth.  

This image of a crater in Acidalia Planitia was acquired March 8, 2003, during northern summer.

This image shows the context for orbital observations of exposed rocks that had been buried an estimated 5 kilometers (3 miles) deep on Mars.

A large mound of sand and dune forms are located on the floor of an unnamed crater south of Rabe Crater in Noachis Terra.

As fractures opened near the summit of Tyrrhena Patera, the ground collapsed to make pits and chains of pits aligned with the fractures. The large pit seen here is about 400 m (1,300 ft) deep.

This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the caldera floor of Arsia Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the Tharsis volcanoes. It is 270 miles in diameter, almost 12 mi...

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter arrived at Mars on Oct. 24, 2001.

Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, are seen in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. The distance to Deimos from Odyssey during the observation was about 12,222 miles (19,670 kilomet...

First THEMIS Image of Mars

The channels in this VIS image are part of Tyrrhena Fossae on the northern flank of Tyrrhenus Mons.

These are two views of the same observation of the Martian moon Phobos taken in both infrared and visible light by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter using its THEMIS camera. The image was taken on A...

Hills abound in this portion of Mars located in the Vastitas Borealis region of the high northern plains. These hills are part of Scandia Colles. Note that some of the hills have aprons surrounding...

Fans and ribbons of dark sand dunes creep across the floor of Bunge Crater in response to winds blowing from the direction at the top of the picture.

Planum Boreum crater

Artist's concept of future humans on Mars.

Sand dunes shaped like blue-black flames lie next to a central hill within an unnamed, 120-kilometer-wide (75-mile-wide) crater in eastern Arabia on Mars.

This mosaic image of Valles Marineris - colored to resemble the martian surface - comes from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a visible-light and infrared-sensing camera on NASA's Mars...