Martian Geological Features

High-resolution images of Mars showing various geological formations, including craters, ridges, and the notable Valles Marineris canyon system.

Sirenum Troughs

Assets in this Story

Kepler's Rim

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft contains interesting examples of crosscutting, sinuous and straight ridges. Both ridges may be ancient river deposits.

Large Ripples in Cerberus

This MOC image shows sinuous ridges and other landforms exposed by erosion in the Aeolis region of Mars

Melas Chasma is part of the Valles Marineris canyon system, the largest canyon in the Solar System. This image was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Wind Erosion in Aeolis

Ceraunius Caldera Floor

The North Polar layered deposits (NPLD) are a stack of layers of ice and dust at the North Pole of Mars. The layers are thought to have been deposited over millions of years. This image is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Cross-Cutting Faults

Sirenum Troughs

Athabasca Vallis Streamlined Islands

Yardangs and Exhumation

$During periods in Mars' history when the planet had greater axial tilt, shifts in atmospheric circulation may have favored the extensive accumulation of snow in some locations. Protonilus Mensae is just such a site of extensive glaciation. We can see a flow of material through the valleys between a complex of small mesas. Streamlines and flow fronts appear as subtle ridges. Some ridges appear perpendicular to the mesas indicating flow direction. Others appear concentric to the mesas and parallel to the valleys, where debris and now-underlying ice bunched up and moved down valley. Deflation of the ice has led to a rich collection of small-scale features. Polygonal patterns of fractures and fissures may be related to a combination of thermal contraction cycles and overall subsidence of the surface. Larger fractures may be glacial crevasses, caused by differential flow rates in the underlying ice. Other more complex patterns of swirled pits and hummocks may result from the continual loss$

THEMIS Images as Art #14

Terby Sedimentary Rocks

Double Impact

Spirit's Winter Work Site

Fretted Terrain Valleys

Stokes Crater Dunes

Images of the Cydonia region of Mars continue to be popular among visitors to the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)web site. The two pictures (one annotated, the other not) are mosaics of two images from MGS MOC and one from the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System visible camera (THEMIS VIS). The mosaics highlight a Cydonia landform popularly known as the D&M Pyramid. It is located near 40.7°N, 9.6°W. Although it is not really shaped like a pyramid, the Cydonia landform is one of thousands of massifs, buttes, mesas, knobs, and blocks that mark the transition from the far northwestern Arabia Terra cratered highlands down to the northeastern Acidalia Planitia lowlands. Each block, whether shaped like a face, a pyramid, or simply a mesa, massif, or knob, is a remnant of the bedrock of northeastern Arabia that was left behind as erosion slowly degraded the terrain along this zone between the highlands and the lowlands. A few outcroppings of layers in this ancien

Ancient Paleo-Dunes Battered by Impact Craters

$Granicus Valles form a low-lying complex of channel systems located west of the volcano Elysium Mons. They are one of several larger systems known as outflow channels because the water source is from the subsurface. In this case, Granicus Valles emanate from a series of fractures on the western flank of Elysium Mons. In this image, large, streamlined features and grooves have been carved by enormous water volumes into the floor of Granicus and point to the direction of flow towards the northwest. The floods of Granicus Valles are thought to have formed later in Mars history during the Amazonian epoch, several billion years ago.$

Dusty Troughs

Degraded Crater

This MOC image shows gullies a portion of a flood-carved canyon within the larger Kasei Valles system on Mars. This canyon is the result of the very last flood event that poured through the Kasei valleys, long ago

Back by popular demand: THEMIS ART IMAGE #61 With an impact crater for an eye - this layer of material resembles a large fish

Landslide in Kasei Valles

Medusae Fossae #1

Exhumed Flows

West Olympica Fossae

The trio of ridges on Titan known as Mithrim Montes is home to the hazy Saturnian moon's tallest peak. The mountain is located midway along the lower of the three ridges shown in this radar image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Wind Streak in Daedalia

This MOC image shows a portion of the floor and wall of a trough in the Acheron Fossae region of Mars. Mass movements of dry dust, which appears to mantle much of the scene, have created the dark slope streaks on the wall of the trough

This MOC image shows the patterned ground of the cold, martian northern plains. The circular features are the sites of buried impact craters

Mars Boulders: On a Hill in Utopia Planitia

East Candor Outcrops

Frozen impact melt flows on the floor of Moore F, a farside highlands crater.

Pits Near Rhabon Valles

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows what is termed a pedestal crater, so-called because the level of the surface adjacent to the crater is elevated relative to the surface of the surrounding terrain.

The Tharsis region of Mars is covered in vast lava flows, many with channels, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Some channels, however, resemble features that may have been formed by water.

Knobby Eastern Arabia

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a large field of sand dunes on Kaiser Crater. They are partially free of seasonal ice, with the contrast making it easy to see the ripples.

Arsinoes Chaos Landforms

Context Camera Views a Mars Impact Crater in Tempe Terra. This meteoroid impact crater on Mars was captured using the black-and-white Context Camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The Context Camera took this image showing the impact, which occurred Sept. 18, 2021, in a region called Tempe Terra. The meteoroid struck the side of a graben - a depression created by faults. The impact crater left behind is roughly 427 feet (130 meters) across.

Northern Meridiani Scene

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows two craters, one that has been named Canuleia and one that has been named Sossia.

Dissected Terrain Near Parana Valles

Pits and Layers

Pwyll Crater on Europa

This image of the polar region illustrates the effect of the sun on polar frost. The highstanding ridges have lost all their frost cover, while the lows shaded by the ridges still have a bright frost cover

A Complex, Ridged Terrain in North Terra Cimmeria

This crater is approximately 2.3 kilometers across and is located in northern Arabia Terra near where the cratered highlands meets the northern lowlands (called a dichotomy boundary ). Small craters with an exit channel, such as this one, are nicknamed pollywog craters, as they resemble tadpoles. The channel is consistent with flow *out of* the crater, rather than flow *into* the crater, because 1) the valleys do not cut down to the level of the interior crater floor, and 2) there are no deposits of material on the floor associated with the mouth of the valley. This small crater was probably once filled with an ice-covered lake that overflowed, forming the exit channel. Young craters with exit channels are intriguing because they record a relatively recent (during the Amazonian epoch) wet environment on Mars.

Mars Water: Valley Networks

High-albedo marks on the lunar surface left by a boulder bouncing down the northeast wall of farside highlands crater Moore F in this image captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This picture captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a portion of the northern rim of Occator Crater, which measures 57 miles (92 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep.

Callisto Crater Chain Mosaic

This mosaic from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows dark material near a series of craters known as the 'snowman' on asteroid Vesta. That ejected material is a complex mixture of components.

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 24, 2018 from an altitude of about 89 miles (143 kilometers). NASA announced the conclusion of Dawn's mission operations was Oct. 31, 2018, when the spacecraft depleted its hydrazine. The center of this feature is located at about 18.5 degrees north latitude and 240.9 degrees east longitude, in the eastern part of Occator Crater. Occator Crater is named after the Roman agricultural deity of the harrowing, a helper of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships.

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 3, 2018 from an altitude of about 22 miles (35 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 14.4 degrees north latitude and 241.4 degrees east longitude.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of Hebrus Valles, located in the plains of the Northern lowlands, just west of the Elysium volcanic region.

This image taken NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the wall of crater Van de Graaff C, where brighter material is exposed by more active processes associated with steeper slopes, recent small craters, and even individual rolling boulders.

This image of Santa Maria Crater was taken by HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter where NASA's rover Opportunity approached Santa Maria Crater in December 2010.

This image in Athabasca Valles shows lava flows originating from Elysium Mons to the northwest. A Context Camera image shows the lava flowed from the northwest to the southeast, diverting around obstacles as it settled. (The flow is outlined in blue with the flow direction shown in yellow, and the approximate location of the HiRISE image is represented by a white rectangle.) The lava appears to have flowed smoothly around obstructions, almost like water, forming streamlined islands. In the southern part of this image, a branch of the flow diverts around a small crater, and eventually rejoins the main part of the flow. Irregular-shaped ring structures appear on the northern end and are related to the volcanic activity that formed the flows. We also see a dense cluster of secondary craters that formed when material ejected from Corinto Crater (to the northwest) impacted the surface at high speed. At full-resolution, this terrain has the distinctive appearance of a field of numerous, smal

'Blueberry' Layers Indicate Watery Origins

Marte Vallis Textures

Gullies in Terraced Crater Wall

Fractured and slumping rim of Klute W crater.

MGS Views of Labyrinthus Noctis

Impact Crater

Highest Resolution Image Ever Obtained of Io

Gassendi A

This image, taken on June 18, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) -- a mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) high, surrounded by relatively smooth terrain, can be seen here.

Erosional Trough on Crater Wall

Antoniadi's Floor

Spirit Rover on 'Husband Hill'

Bottom of Laplace A crater cavity.

Eros'North Pole

The Thermal Emission Imaging System aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey captured this daytime infrared image of Rabe Crater shows the large dune field located within the crater. Note that the dunes are not confined to the lowest elevation depressions on the

Rock Bands

This image by NASA's Mars Odyssey illustrates the complex terrains within Terra Meridiani. This general region is one of the more complex on Mars, with a rich array of sedimentary, volcanic, and impact surfaces that span a wide range of Martian history.

East Candor Layers

Terra Sirenum Slope

Ancient Bedforms

Layers in Terby Crater

This frame from a sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012. The images are from HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Phoenix's Probe Inserted in Martian Soil

Gullied Crater Wall

This MOC image shows a small portion of a dust-covered plain directly north of Labyrinthus Noctis which is cut by three linear troughs

Cerberus Fossae Trough

A bottleneck at the start of the lunar sinuous rille within Vallis Alpes formed several morphologic features including a lava pond, a breached dam, and an island in the rille in this image captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Sinus Sabaeus Scene

Southern hemisphere spring has arrived at the south polar cap. The ice layers that make up the cap are easily seen in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

Rippled Mars

This MOC image shows a contact between a dust-covered plain and a dust-mantled, textured upland in the Memnonia Sulci region of Mars

This is a radar image of a little known volcano in northern Colombia. The image was acquired on orbit 80 of space shuttle Endeavour on April 14, 1994, by NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR).

Sedimentary Rocks of 8N, 7W

Russell Crater - IR

This MOC image shows cracked, layered plains-forming material in the western part of Utopia Planitia, Mars

Tractus Catena Collapse Pits

View of Miranda showing light and dark banded scarps near the boundary of the banded ovoid and a deep graben that bounds the ovoid in this region.

This MOC image shows remnants of layered materials near the west rim of South Crater, Mars. The composition of these layered rocks is unknown -- are they the remains of sedimentary rocks or accumulations of dust and ice

This image of Miranda, obtained by NASA's Voyager 2 on approach in 1986, shows an unusual 'chevron' figure and regions of distinctly differing terrain on the Uranian moon.

This image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a central peak that is surrounded by a ring-like graben feature and relatively flat terrain.

Small Yardangs

The so-called 'Face on Mars' can be seen slightly above center and to the right in this NASA Mars Odyssey image. This 3-km long knob was first imaged by NASA's Viking spacecraft in the 1970's and to some resembled a face carved into the rocks of Mars.

This NASA Mars Odyssey image shows Dao Vallis, a large outflow channel that starts on the southeast flank of a large volcano called Hadriaca Patera and runs for 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) southwest into the Hellas impact basin.

Small Volcano

Layers and Exhuming Crater

This is a frame from an animation that flips back and forth between views taken in 2010 and 2014 of a Martian sand dune at the edge of Mount Sharp, documenting dune activity.

This image covers part of the Athabasca Valles flood lava plain, the youngest large lava flow on the surface of Mars as observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Today's VIS image shows a small part of the south polar cap. The layering of the cap is easy to see. The layers record the seasonal deposition of dust and ice over the course of 1000's of years. This image was taken during summer at the pole. Orbit Number 74904 Latitude -85.4168 Longitude 184.015 Instrument VIS Captured 2018-11-02 20 21

Approximate Location of Spirit

A crater on the southwest rim of Metius B crater.

This MOC image shows a flow knob of light-toned, layered rock exposed by erosion in the Iani Chaos region of Mars

North Nilosyrtis Mesas

Inverted Channels

South Polar Terrain

Lava Flow and Impact Crater

Small, Fresh Impact Crater With Dark Ejecta

This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows terrain on Saturn's moon Dione that is entirely lit by reflected light from Saturn, called Saturnshine.

This daytime infrared image shows a channel system draining from the highlands down to Isidis Planitia.

Does this observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a possible proto-pedestal crater This crater has a ring trough, but the inner circle around the crater does not appear significantly elevated.

Mass Wasting in Craters near the South Pole of Callisto

After traveling more than 1.5 billion kilometers (948 million miles), NASA's Magellan spacecraft was inserted into orbit around Venus on Aug. 10, 1990.

Changes Over a Martian Year -- New Dark Slope Streaks in Lycus Sucli

Most craters are round, because a high-velocity impact acts like a powerful explosion that expands in all directions. This crater is an exception because the northern rim is almost perfectly straight. One possibility is that there was a zone of joints or faults in the crust that existed before the impact. When the impact happened, the crater formed along the straight line of these faults. Something similar happened to Meteor Crater in Arizona. Our image doesn't show any faults, but they could be beneath the surface. Perhaps some sort of uneven collapse changed the shape of the crater. There are piles of material on the crater's floor, especially in the northwest and northeast corners. If those piles fell down from the rim, why did it happen there and not in other places This crater is near the size where larger craters start to show wall slumping and terraces, so this type of collapse could be occurring unevenly. Our image reveals the crisp detail of the crater rim, with individual bou

Landforms in East Candor

The sand dunes in this image surround the northwestern half of the central peak of this crater

Medusae Sulci Yardangs

Mound on Mars

Impact Crater

Valley and Surrounding Terrain Adjacent to Schiaparelli Crater - High Resolution Image

The south pole of the giant asteroid Vesta reveals cliffs that are several miles or kilometers high, deep grooves, and craters. This oblique view is from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

The surface beneath the south polar cap as seen by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft at the highest latitude in Chasma Australe.

This MOC image shows a portion of a dust-covered plain northwest of Jovis Tholus which is host to several overlapping, ancient lava flows and a channel containing streamlined features indicative of fluid flow

From Mars, With Love

Raditladi's Rings

This image of asteroid Vesta, from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, calculated from a shape model, shows a tilted view of the topography of the south polar region. This perspective removes the overall curvature of Vesta, as if the giant asteroid were flat and not

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows an impact crater looking amusingly like a tadpole because of the valley that was carved by water that used to fill it. It is often difficult to differentiate between inlet and outlet channels, but water always flows downhill. In this particular case, we can infer that water is flowing outward because we have the necessary terrain-height information. When studying these images in detail, scientists can gain a better understanding of the strength of the flooding water that carved the channels, and better understand the history of water activity in this region of Mars.

There are many knob formations is the southeastern Acidalia region of Mars. All show a hilltop crest except one which has a summit crater that resembles a cone volcano in this image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Inside a Crater

Crater Shows Evidence for Water

Pedestal Crater and Yardangs

Martian Gullies

The Tyre multi-ring Structure on Europa

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 6, 2018 from an altitude of about 72 miles (116 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 44.1 degrees south latitude and 249.1 degrees east longitude.

Filled/Eroded Craters

Photographic Mosaic of Saturn

This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft contains the margin of the south polar cap (bottom half) and dunes in an unnamed crater (top half). Part of the crater is covered by ice, which may affect the winds creating these dunes.

Gusev Crater

Layers and a Dust Devil in Melas Chasma

A large sandsheet with surface dune forms is shown in today's image of Aonia Terra.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, located in asteroid Vesta's Caparronia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere, demonstrate a special analytical technique, which results in shadowed areas of Vesta's surface becoming illuminated.

A Sharp Look at Robert E

Lycus Sulci Slope Streaks

This highest-resolution image from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows how erosion and faulting has sculpted this portion of Pluto's icy crust into rugged badlands.

Dunes of Herschel

Small fresh crater in Palitzsch B, with a shape and ejecta pattern typical of an oblique impact.

This image by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a region of northern Tempe Terra. Patchy water-ice clouds cover portions of the low-lying canyon at the top (north) of this image.

Impact craters are rare on Titan. Until recently only seven had been identified definitely on Titan. Dunes, visible as dark lines on the left of the image, have been swept toward the crater by the winds of Titan.

Compositional Medley

'Humphrey' Like You've Never Seen It

Ice Clouds in Color IR

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a relatively fresh crater with bright deposits exposed in the crater wall that streak downslope on the giant asteroid Vesta.

This image acquired by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) from data collected on February 12, 2000 shows two islands, Miquelon and Saint Pierre, located south of Newfoundland, Canada.

The anaglyph is helpful to see that the dark streaks really do occur on a slope in this image taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor 1999. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

This MOC image shows a group of impact craters in Aonia Planum, Mars. Remarkably, two of the craters are approximately equal in size, however, they clearly differ in age

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows craters with both sharp and smooth crater rims in asteroid Vesta's southern hemisphere. Detailed structure is seen more readily in the the image with a smaller view at right.

Dunes and Dust Devil Tracks

Looking Into the Dark

Boulder Trails in Menelaus Crater

This MOC image shows the contact between a group of yardangs, tapered ridges formed by the removal of relatively easily-eroded material (e.g., sedimentary rock) and a concentration of dark-toned windblown sand on the floor of a crater in Terra Sabaea

Meridiani Rocks

This MOC image shows dark sand dunes superposed on layered, light-toned outcrops -- interpreted to be sedimentary rocks -- in Melas Chasma. Melas Chasma is part of the enormous Valles Marineris trough system

This is an image showing part of Isla Isabella in the western Galapagos Islands. It was taken by the L-band radar in HH polarization from the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar on the 40th orbit of NASAs space shuttle Endeavour.

This 360-degree vertical projection was assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exporation Rover Opportunity shows terrain surrounding the position where the rover spent its 3,000th Martian day.

Crommelin Crater #2

This view from NASA's Dawn mission shows where ice has been detected in the northern wall of Ceres' Juling Crater, which is in almost permanent shadow. Dawn acquired the picture with its framing camera on Aug. 30, 2016, and it was processed with the help of NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP), to estimate the slope of the cliff.

Small Volcano in Tempe Terra

Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) Spirit Landing Site

Alba Patera Surface

Crater Close-up on Phoebe

Opportunity Rocks!

This pair of THEMIS infrared images shows the so-called 'face on Mars' landform viewed during both the day and night.

This frame from an animated sequence of NASA's Cassini images shows methane clouds moving above the large methane sea on Saturn's moon Titan known as Ligeia Mare.

Opportunity's View on Sols 1803 and 1804 (Vertical)

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its microscopic imager to get this view of the surface of a rock called 'Block Island' during the 1,963rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Aug. 1, 2009).

The Trench Throws a Dirt Clod at Scientists

Xanthe Valley

Two of Guatemala's active volcanoes, Fuego (upper left) and Pacaya (lower right) were erupting when the ASTER nighttime thermal infrared image was acquired on March 5, 2021. Pacaya's most recent eruption began Wednesday, with several lava flows and ash eruptions; surrounding villages were ordered evacuated. Since mid-February, Fuego continued to produce sporadic emissions of ash from its active central crater. In the ASTER image, the hottest areas are white, and coldest are black. The image covers an area of 29.8 by 40.3 km, and is centered at 14.4 degrees north, 90.8 degrees west.

This set of images from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows the so-called 'face on Mars' landform located in the northern plains of Mars.

South Polar Topography (MOLA)

Sappinia is an amoeba (a single-celled living organism), found in the environment. There are two known species of Sappinia: Sappinia diploidea and Sappinia pedata. This amoeba causes amoebic encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain. Worldwide, only one case of amoebic encephalitis due to Sappinia infection has been reported.

Europa's Pwyll Crater

Crater in Sabaeus

Mozart's Composition

Spirit's Travels During its First 238 Martian Days

Eumenides Dorsum Yardangs

This image was taken by the Philae lander of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission when it was about 130 feet (40 meters) above the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during descent to the surface on Nov. 12, 2014.

This image shows two shallow, circular holes - one above and one below - that meet in the middle to form an indentation shaped like a figure eight in the Martian soil. The holes are within a larger circular area created by the rock abrasion tool

Apollo 12 - A Strange String of Moon Craters

Two unusual volcanic domes are shown in this full-resolution mosaic obtained by NASA's Magellan spacecraft.

Galileo's Best View of Loki Volcano on Io

Visit to Ward Island : Honeycomb gelatin silver negatives, black-and-white negatives

This nighttime thermal infrared image, taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, shows differences in temperature that are due to differences in the abundance of rocks, sand and dust on the surface.

North Mid-latitude Crater

THEMIS Images as Art #46

Ejecta Boulders

This global digital map of Rhea was created using data taken during NASA's Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. This map contains data from Cassini's Jan. 11, 2011, flyby of Rhea. Six Voyager images fill gaps in Cassini's coverage of the north pole.

This global digital map of Saturn's moon Tethys was created using data taken during Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 293 meters (961 feet) per pixel

This MOC image shows a wide, flat-floored trough flanked by several smaller, branching troughs in the Olympica Fossae region of Mars. Dark- and intermediate-toned slope streaks -- created by dry avalanches of dust -- occur on the trough walls

Pine Island Glacier has undergone a steady loss of elevation with retreat of the grounding line in recent decades. NASA's Terra satellite acquired the scene on December 12, 2000.

In Focus: Cahokia Vallis

Berkel - Nearly Three Years Later

Major Martian Volcanoes from MOLA - Arsia Mons

Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a composite image taken by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a guest instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

Spirit's Travels

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show the ~20km diameter Numisia crater on asteroid Aster, after which Numisia quadrangle is named.

Collapse Features

This view from the OSIRIS instrument onboard ESA's Rosetta spacecraft shows the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko from a distance of 1,210 miles (1950 kilometers).

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.

Kamchatka, Russia hosts some of the most active volcanoes on earth. Among those is Kliuchevskoi stratovolcano, erupting almost constantly, and the tallest volcano in Kamchatka. In this snow-covered winter image (left), an eruption plume rising to 7.5 km, is streaming from the summit in a northeast direction. The thermal infrared image (right) reveals additional information the bright material on the east side of the summit is a hot, recent lava flow; the eruption plume is displayed in blue, revealing its composition as dominated by ice mixed with ash. The thermal data are noisy because of the very low signal from the cold scene. The data were acquired December 2, 2020, cover an area of 27 by 30 km, and are located at 56.1 degrees north, 160.7 degrees east.

This picture of Io, Jupiter's innermost Galilean satellite, was taken by Voyager 1 on the morning of March 5, 1979, during the closest approach to this satellite.

Scanning Electron Photomicrograph of Polio Virions

Pathfinder Landing Site Observed by Mars Orbiter Camera

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an approximately 7-meter diameter fresh crater and dark ejecta blanket. These small impact craters continue to form on Mars, and are most easily recognized in areas covered by bright dust.

This anaglyph, from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, is of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

This anaglyph, from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, is of the coastal area in southernmost Oman; the Arabian Sea is on the right. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Impact Crater

This map of Titan from NASA's Cassini imaging coverage, shows the names of many (but not all) features on the Saturnian moon that have been approved by the International Astronomical Union.