Landing Site Region

This map shows the thickness of the north polar layered deposits on Mars as measured by the Shallow Radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This image shows a cross-section of a portion of the north polar ice cap of Mars, derived from data acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Shallow Radar (SHARAD), one of six instruments on t...

This map shows the path on Mars of NASA's Curiosity rover toward Glenelg, an area where three terrains of scientific interest converge.

These images from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were taken before and after an apparent impact scar appeared in the area in March 2012. Comparing the Jan. 16, 2012, image...

The bright feature in this image might be the parachute from a 1971 Soviet Mars lander named Mars 3. The image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's...

This image shows an example of layers in the Martian north polar deposits. These deposits, part of the Planum Boreum dome, are composed mainly of water ice and small amounts of dust.

This terrain is covered by pits and scallops (pits open on one side), perhaps due to collapse after sublimation of subsurface ice.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a hill with a central crater. Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes (really a sedimentary structure) and as actual volca...

Is frozen carbon dioxide a key to features in some Martian gullies? To find out, scientists grabbed a bag of dry ice and took a road trip.

Wrinkle Ridge in Solis Planum

As the Sun peeks above the horizon at the Martian south polar icecap, powerful jets of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas erupt through the icecap's topmost layer.

This map shows five locations where fresh impact cratering has excavated water ice from just beneath the surface of Mars (sites 1 through 5) and the Viking Lander 2 landing site (VL2), in the conte...

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this series of false-color pictures of sand dunes in the north polar region of Mars

This image acquired on December 8, 2018 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows erosion of the surface revealing several shades of light toned layers, likely sedimentary deposits.

This image acquired on January 21, 2019 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the south polar layered deposits are well illuminated to accentuate the topography.

Eberswalde Crater was one of the four final landing sites considered for the MSL rover. A channel leads into the crater and the lithified remains of a delta, a fan-like feature formed when sediment...

A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A large dust storm on Mars, nearly twice the size of the United States, covered the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet in early January 2022, leading to some of NASA’s explorers on the surface h...

This proposed future Mars landing site in Acidalia Planitia targets densely occurring mounds thought to be mud volcanoes.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left the "Glenelg" area on July 4, 2013, on a "rapid transit route" to the entry point for the mission's next major destination, the lower layers of Mount Sharp.

The large impact crater known as Stickney is the largest crater on the Martian moon Phobos.

This image is located within Northern Sinus Meridiani, a region of ridged terrains and extensive stratigraphic layering. 

This global map of Mars was acquired on July 31, 2012, by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has clocked more than a decade of service at the Red Planet and has yielded scientific discoveries and magnificent views of a distant world. These images taken by...

This image covers a "fresh-looking" impact crater with a diameter of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).