Martian Skies

June 20, 2008 11:42 AM
Yesterday's announcement by NASA of the discovery of water ice on Mars by its Phoenix Lander probe made big news everywhere. The discovery involved the observation of water ice sublimating into the air - that is, the water went from solid to vapor state without reaching the liquid stage. The Martian atmosphere has perfect conditions for sublimation - extremely thin, dry and cold. How cold? Well, you can check the Live Martian Weather Report, with data from a station on board the Phoenix Lander. Today will see a high temperature of a toasty -26 degrees F.

What more do we know about Mars' atmosphere? It's hundreds of times thinner than Earth's atmosphere and is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane. We also know, from observations that it can support dust storms, dust devils, clouds and gusty winds. With an amazing number of six current live probes exploring Mars (two rovers, a lander, and three orbiters), there are many thousands of images available. Only a few, however show atmospheric phenomena. Presented here are some of the best images of Martian atmosphere (and beyond) in action. (17 photos total)


High, wispy clouds cover a large portion of Mars, seen in this, the first true-colour image of Mars generated with the OSIRIS orange (red), green and blue color filters. The image was acquired by an instrument on the ESA's Rosetta probe on Feb. 24, 2007 from a distance of about 240,000 km. Image resolution is about 5 km/pixel. (Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)


Mars' northern orange sky and horizon, seen by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The lander's solar panel and Robotic Arm with a sample in the scoop are also visible. The image was taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager looking west during Phoenix's Sol 16 (June 10, 2008), or the 16th Martian day after landing. The image was taken just before the sample was delivered to the Optical Microscope. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)

The brownish gray sky at sunset as it would be seen by an observer on Mars - true color mosaic taken by Mars Pathfinder on sol 24 (June 22, 1996) The sky near the sun is a pale blue color. (NASA/JPL)

High ice cloud over Mars' limb. This composite of red and blue Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images acquired on 6 July 2005 shows an isolated water ice cloud extending more than 30 kilometers (more than 18 miles) above the Martian surface. Clouds such as this are common in late spring over the terrain located southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. (NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

Clouds over crater - the dust storm season in the southern hemisphere of Mars was well underway. This image of an unnamed crater southeast of Hellas Basin shows the encroachment of a storm in the region. Image acquired in 2001 by Mars Odyssey orbiter (17 meter/pixel resolution). (NASA/JPL/ASU)

Dust devil from above. This image taken by the Hi-RISE Camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter catches a dust devil blowing across the Martian surface. Dust devils generally form in the afternoon because the sunlight needs sufficient time to warm the surface. When this image was taken, the local time was about 3:08 p.m. The bright material is the dust within the vortex, and a dark shadow cast by the dust devil is visible to the left. The diameter of this dust devil is about 200 meters, but at the surface it is probably much smaller. Based on the length of the shadow in this image, the dust devil is on the order of 500 meters tall. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Several dust devils cross a plain in this animation of a series of images acquired by NASA's Mars Rover Spirit in May, 2005. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS)

A well-defined dust devil crosses in front of the camera in this animation of a series of images acquired by NASA's Mars Rover Spirit in May, 2005. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS)

Martian skies seen above a rolling horizon in this image, part of a larger image called the "McMurdo" panorama, taken in the Martian winter of 2006 by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The tracks in the soil are from Spirits wheels as it rolled through the area earlier. (NASA/JPL/Cornell)

Clouds above the rim of "Endurance Crater" in this image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. These clouds occur in a region of strong vertical shear. The cloud particles (ice in this martian case) fall out, and get dragged along away from the location where they originally condensed, forming characteristic streamers. Opportunity took this picture with its navigation camera during the rover's 269th martian day (Oct. 26, 2004). (NASA/JPL)

Early Spring Dust Storms at the North Pole of Mars. Early spring typically brings dust storms to northern polar Mars. As the north polar cap begins to thaw, the temperature difference between the cold frost region and recently thawed surface results in swirling winds. The choppy dust clouds of several dust storms are visible in this mosaic of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 2002. The white polar cap is frozen carbon dioxide. (NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

An exaggerated color image mosaic of images from NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity. The clouds can be composed of either carbon dioxide ice or water ice, and can move swiftly across the sky. (NASA/JPL/Cornell)

Large dust storms cover much of Mars' surface in this July, 2001 image, acquired by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera. By early July, the martian atmosphere was so hazy that opportunities for high resolution imaging of the planet were very limited. (NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

The air is certainly thick enough to fill a parachute. On May 25th, 2008, the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this dramatic oblique image of the arrival of its sister probe from NASA, the Phoenix Lander, descending on its parachute. Phoenix and its parachute can be barely seen in the larger image with 10 km wide crater informally called "Heimdall" in the background. Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers in front of the crater. Given the position and pointing angle of MRO, Phoenix is at about 13 km above the surface, just a few seconds after the parachute opened. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. The image is a false color composite, showing the sky similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. (NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell)

Higher in the Martian skies, we see one of its two moons. The HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this dramatic view of the Martian moon, Phobos, on 23 March 2008, from a distance of 6,800 kilometers. The illuminated part of Phobos is about 21 km across. The most prominent feature is the large impact crater Stickney, in the upper left. With a diameter of 9 km, it is the largest feature on Phobos. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Even higher in the Martian sky, the Earth and Moon hang in space, as seen from Mars. The HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image at 5:20 a.m. MST on October 3rd, 2007, at a range of 142 million kilometers, while orbiting Mars.

More links and information:
Live Martian Weather Report Canadian Space Agency
On Mars No One Can Hear You Scream - studying the physical properties of sound on Mars.
MER Spirit dust devils - listing of many animations
Rosetta - ESA probe circling the inner Solar System, on its way to a rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - NASA probe
Mars Odyssey Orbiter - NASA probe, 2,432 Days in Orbit around Mars as of 6/20/2008
Phoenix Lander NASA probe on Mars's surface.
Mars Exploration Rovers - NASA's Spirit & Opportunity
ESA's Mars Express - ESA orbiter
Mars Science Laboratory NASA's new Mars rover, scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2009.
'McMurdo' Panorama - panorama from NASA's Spirit rover
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289 comments so far...

  1. Awesome photos. One of the great things about this bog is you learn lots as well, I never realized Mars had a thick enough atmosphere for such a variety of weather.

    Posted by Greg June 20, 08 11:45 AM

  1. Stunning.

    Posted by kut June 20, 08 11:55 AM

  1. Most awesome.
    It feels good to be reminded how small we are in the larger scheme of things.

    Posted by jonathan June 20, 08 11:55 AM

  1. Incredible. I love this blog! I would never even know where to find these types of pictures, even in a smaller format. Thanks for truly bringing information to the people!

    Posted by B June 20, 08 12:04 PM

  1. Wow, these are incredible images. For being an 'alien' planet, it sure doesn't look all that different than Earth. Thanks for posting!!

    Posted by Cheryl June 20, 08 12:04 PM

  1. Incredible Amazing - Breathtaking images - Outstanding blog. Congrats!!

    Best regards from El Salvador, Central AMERICA

    Posted by Salvador Garza June 20, 08 12:08 PM

  1. This is very cool. I can't wait to visit Mars.

    Posted by Peter June 20, 08 12:22 PM

  1. Those pictures are incredible.

    Posted by Nichole June 20, 08 12:24 PM

  1. Breathtaking.....

    Posted by Laura June 20, 08 12:52 PM

  1. Awesome pics. I now want to be an astronaut again.

    Posted by Hooty June 20, 08 12:55 PM

  1. Incredible! What an achievement this is.

    Posted by Sean June 20, 08 01:03 PM

  1. Great article. The pictures are stunning like always.

    I have never seen the dust devil ones before. Can you believe it, dust devils on mars...

    It blows my mind thinking that all these pictures are taken on a different planet.

    Posted by Simon Christen June 20, 08 01:07 PM

  1. Where are the stars? The background should be full of stars very crystal clear and numbering in the billions. Why does NASA like to blackout the stars? What are they hiding?

    Posted by Merkhava June 20, 08 01:19 PM

  1. Awesome Pictures...strides are being made...and I am packing my bags and moving ;-)

    Posted by Jtech June 20, 08 01:19 PM

  1. The crescent Earth is amazing.

    Posted by thursday June 20, 08 01:45 PM

  1. Your answer #13 (Merkhava):

    http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/why-cant-stars-.html

    Posted by erick June 20, 08 01:48 PM

  1. this isnt Mars, it is somewhere in the Arizona desert. Wake up Sheeple!!

    Posted by dusty June 20, 08 01:55 PM

  1. Unbelievable and awe inspiring. Stephen Hawking said Man's only hope is colonies on Mars and our moon. How true

    Posted by Arun Keshkamat (Sangli, MAH, India) June 20, 08 02:02 PM

  1. Cool Martian sunset images!

    Posted by Mart June 20, 08 02:17 PM

  1. Wow.. the Earth looks so nice! The Blue Marble rocks. Even our moon is better looking. haha Mars is so ghetto.

    Posted by Dr. Harden Stuhl June 20, 08 02:38 PM

  1. I love how Boston.com takes photojournalism seriously.

    You guys are making everyone else look like clowns- keep it up.

    -Mike

    Posted by Mike June 20, 08 02:59 PM

  1. Mr. Taylor, could you please enable PicLens (www.piclens.com) for this site? It may be the one thing to make this (fantastic) blog even better.

    Posted by CMiller June 20, 08 03:07 PM

  1. Looks really desolate there. A literally endless desert with no shelter and no raw materials to build one. It would feel extremely lonely, exposed and isolated to be there in person.

    Other than that it's looks really cool.

    Posted by Luke Skywalker June 20, 08 03:15 PM

  1. This stuff is amazing.

    I love The Big Picture feature...simply gorgeous photos. Keep up the great work.

    Posted by Micah June 20, 08 03:22 PM

  1. Very nice and informative blog. Good job, keep it up!

    Posted by Frank June 20, 08 03:33 PM

  1. I am stupid.

    Posted by Conception June 20, 08 03:54 PM

  1. This blog is awesome! I absolutely love the big photos that you put up, as well as the information!! Keep it up!

    Posted by Jon June 20, 08 03:58 PM

  1. I want to walk on Mars one day!

    Posted by Spacefire June 20, 08 04:03 PM

  1. Incredible blog....keep up the awesome work!

    Posted by Ed June 20, 08 04:19 PM

  1. The photo of the sun setting over a Martian landscape was eerily familiar looking - hard to accept that it was on Mars and not Earth.

    Posted by The Tumbleman June 20, 08 04:23 PM

  1. Those weren't dust devils! Those were Martians!!

    Posted by kevjohn June 20, 08 04:27 PM

  1. Doesn't look much different than earth, Cheryl? You got to be kidding.

    Posted by Mark Merrill June 20, 08 04:38 PM

  1. The pictures are definitely fantastic, they just modified my imagination of red/green/blue mars. BUT I wonder, since the moon is considerably smaller than mars, and you can see her very well defined in this picture 'taken from mars', why on a clear night we can't see mars as big.

    Posted by Graeme June 20, 08 04:49 PM

  1. Why is a Martian sunset blue?

    Posted by Mark June 20, 08 04:58 PM

  1. WOW!!!!!!! SIMPLY AMAZING... Doesn't look much different than earth. What a great achievement. Fabulous pictures....

    Posted by Kristina June 20, 08 05:00 PM

  1. Outstanding!

    Just wanted to be another voice that says - keep up the good work, this is a fantastic addition to my day. Thanks!

    Posted by R June 20, 08 05:04 PM

  1. It's amazing to see clouds similar to the ones we have here, I want to go!

    Posted by Damian June 20, 08 05:16 PM

  1. Many thanks are in order to all the great and not so great men who made the journey possible, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Einstein, Hohman, Holman.. God Bless.

    Posted by Philcer June 20, 08 05:21 PM

  1. Seeing our Sun from the surface of an alien planet is breathtaking... as is that second picture with the endless, rocky terrain and eerie reddish grey sky. Thank you so much for posting them.

    Posted by JB June 20, 08 05:30 PM

  1. Wow, what a cool looking place. Sure would love to go hang out there for a while.

    JT
    http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

    Posted by John Savage June 20, 08 05:34 PM

  1. Mark,
    The sunset is blue because of the atmosphere's composition. Since there are very little traces of oxygen, water ice and microscopic particles, the color reflects of these materials and creates a slightly blue color.

    At some moments it does look like Earth, but if you would experience actually being there. ohh... it trully is alien.

    Posted by vlad June 20, 08 05:38 PM

  1. Because it`s zoomd bout 30times. Take TC and look above. With cheapes scopes you could see phobos.

    Posted by Vecis June 20, 08 05:39 PM

  1. Outstanding pictures! It was worth it.

    Posted by Joe Shmo June 20, 08 05:40 PM

  1. Absolutely fantastic. I cannot wait to pack my bags :)

    Posted by Big G June 20, 08 05:42 PM

  1. fantastic!

    Posted by mark June 20, 08 05:53 PM

  1. The photo of earth and the moon as seen from mars is most incredible.

    Posted by Tom June 20, 08 06:07 PM

  1. phobes looks like a peice of sculpted clay

    Posted by digital ownage June 20, 08 06:55 PM

  1. Believe.

    Posted by Believer. June 20, 08 07:21 PM

  1. I am so glad I found this blog! (Through Photojojo). Not only are the photos great, but I feel more in touch with people around the world. (And with whomever is hanging out there on Mars)

    Posted by Claire June 20, 08 07:32 PM

  1. freaking awesome

    Posted by tyler June 20, 08 07:38 PM

  1. UNBELIEVEABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEAUTIFUL

    Posted by Frank Doss June 20, 08 08:58 PM

  1. The dust devils bring life to the martian playa. I would love to go fossil hunting there! :-)

    Posted by Joe Magura June 20, 08 10:04 PM

  1. I'm speachless...

    Posted by Artur Martins June 20, 08 10:10 PM

  1. One can¨t help but feeling insignificant before such greatness. May God keep us From making this pictures a replica of our Earth in the not too distant future if we continue our careless behaviour .

    Posted by Ruben D:C From Queretaro, Mexico. June 20, 08 10:15 PM

  1. how to "thicken up" the atmosphere to have it retain more heat? With all that CO2, would't it be perfect for oxygen-producing plant life?

    Posted by Paul in NY June 20, 08 10:30 PM

  1. theres a picture of earth from the surface of mars taken by opportunity. looks a lot like Venus does from here.

    also the picture of earth and moon, there was a Japanese probe on the way to the moon at the time.

    Posted by yossi June 20, 08 10:34 PM

  1. i still enjoy eating shellfish

    Posted by dil June 20, 08 10:43 PM

  1. Thanks, for putting together great pictures. I've forwarded to many friends and family to be sure they will not miss it!

    Posted by Daniel Solcher June 20, 08 11:44 PM

  1. Chemistry and physics can do amazing things, and we are lucky to be able to witness the grandeur. If there is a god, his involvement is certainly at a much more distant level than creating these pictures. He may have decided the basic properties of the fundamental particles, but he certainly hasn't meddled with the universe since the very beginning. And that means no naked garden people!

    Posted by xray June 20, 08 11:54 PM

  1. It's just heartbreaking. Seeing it, and not being able to experience it. We are trapped in this small planet, with no chance whatsoever to see the wonders first hand even this solar system offers, not to mention the universe itself.

    Posted by angryrat June 21, 08 12:03 AM

  1. Hermosas fotos!

    Posted by Roberto June 21, 08 12:05 AM

  1. ONLY ASTONISHMENT

    Posted by vpostapost June 21, 08 12:29 AM

  1. they are very good pictur from meriikh

    Posted by Emrak shareef June 21, 08 12:31 AM

  1. Thanks for whoever wrote those captions. They address questions or presumptions people might have looking at the pictures.

    Posted by Tamer Salama June 21, 08 12:42 AM

  1. Wonderful...........20 years ago I don't even think that mankind could take this wonder....bravo

    Posted by waluyo wibowo June 21, 08 12:43 AM

  1. Fabulous!! Just can't get enough of these pics.

    Posted by Ram June 21, 08 01:10 AM

  1. Why do i feel a sense of loss when staring at these?

    Clouds that shall never bare rain, dry sandy soil that shall never know a waters droplet.

    Sigh. This world was once blue and beutiful, like Earth. Awaiting life to grow or colonise it. But alas, the lack of ionosphere has reduced it to this.

    Perhaps one day mankind may restore it to its former glory?

    Posted by Jarryd June 21, 08 01:40 AM

  1. truly amazing, spectacular & very impresive images of mars. resembels earth in many ways.

    Posted by Faran Malik June 21, 08 02:04 AM

  1. Praise the Lord for his wonderful creation, so beautiful!

    Posted by Kameron June 21, 08 02:33 AM

  1. These picture are proof that aliens exist and have visited us!

    Posted by Mr Roboto June 21, 08 02:35 AM

  1. Che immagini incredibili.....
    Bravi gli ingegneri spaziali che hanno costruito Phoenix che a distanza di tanti anni funziona ancora e ci regala panorami inusuali.

    Posted by Marilyn June 21, 08 02:48 AM

  1. Absolutely stunning. My jaws have hit the floor and they refuse to return. The human advancement in technology is something to marvel at. MUST SHARE WITH EVERYONE. Great photos.

    Posted by June June 21, 08 02:59 AM

  1. ownderful pics, I love mars

    Posted by Anonymous June 21, 08 03:28 AM

  1. Such a lovely earth, but can you imagine if there is peace on Earth?

    Posted by virtue June 21, 08 04:25 AM

  1. I am speechless too .... but then again I am not, because I just said something ... .Like Einsteins theory of relativity ... thing s keep moving on. But hey, really, this is a great bit of bluff by the space team at NASA ... most people will believe these pictures really are from Mars ...

    Posted by Efto June 21, 08 04:47 AM

  1. Where is Orson Welles when you really need him?

    These are unbelievably spectacular photos and I really love the Martian Weather station.

    Posted by Venan E Thompson June 21, 08 06:07 AM

  1. amazing photos!

    --
    http://maulnet.sevasjack.info

    Posted by sevasjack June 21, 08 06:25 AM

  1. As always, great pictures!
    Does anyone know where I can get a highres-version of mars12.jpg ? I'm thinking about getting an A4-print of it :)

    EDIT: Just found it :
    http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0610/marshorizon_opportunity_big.jpg

    Posted by Douglas June 21, 08 06:53 AM

  1. EXCELLENT,SINGULAR,WONDERFULL PHOTOES.....I HAVE NO WORDS...JUST PERFECT!!

    Posted by EKATH June 21, 08 07:03 AM

  1. earth sure does look nice from space

    Posted by l0wryda June 21, 08 07:22 AM

  1. damn!!!! so incredible, thank you

    Posted by korbsan June 21, 08 07:37 AM

  1. all i have to say is Wow! that sky looks so beautiful

    Posted by defekt June 21, 08 08:25 AM

  1. You wonder why God created planets like Mars that cannot support life as we know it. Life in some other form maybe! I'm fascinated by what we have found with probes such as the PHOENIX. Keep the pictures coming!

    Posted by Gene Egeland June 21, 08 08:41 AM

  1. The pictures are simply amazing!

    Posted by SillyGirl June 21, 08 08:42 AM

  1. Wow, amazing photo!!!

    www.dariosalvelli.com

    Posted by Dario Salvelli June 21, 08 08:44 AM

  1. Amazing photos.

    Posted by Anonymous June 21, 08 09:01 AM

  1. thank you

    Posted by per June 21, 08 10:58 AM

  1. Amazing photos. What a marvelous world our Creator has formed! Thanks for sharing these with us.

    Posted by Barb Webb June 21, 08 11:11 AM

  1. I don't understand why do we want to find ice?
    Why are we excited about mars supporting life?
    Are we going to pump oxygen into mar's atmosphere?

    OMG is Earth not going to be here forever?
    Is the government keeping a secret from us about Earth?

    Please answer these questions. Thanks

    Posted by Chris June 21, 08 12:05 PM

  1. Does Mars have Global Warming too?

    Posted by Chris June 21, 08 12:14 PM

  1. Great job. Pictures are beautiful. Thanks.

    Posted by Joe June 21, 08 12:38 PM

  1. I am awestruck. These images capture the inspiration of scientists in pursuit of truth and understanding of our universe. I will save this page to share with my daughter. Perhaps she will find inspiration too.

    Posted by GregP June 21, 08 12:58 PM

  1. Thanks for making these available! Wow!

    Posted by Jim Morales June 21, 08 12:59 PM

  1. Thank you so much for these images and for "The Big Picture"!!

    Posted by ellie June 21, 08 01:11 PM

  1. Cool pictures...but what a waste to tax-payers money!

    Posted by Kevin June 21, 08 01:11 PM

  1. take the image of the rover scooping the dirt, drop it into photoshop and hit "auto levels" you'll see the what the REAL colors are. i have read that NASA doctors the color to a red tint to make it seem more "alien" rather than the place from which we came.

    Posted by Buddy June 21, 08 01:15 PM

  1. very educational, and very interesting, loved it

    Posted by Pat Logan June 21, 08 01:39 PM

  1. I wonder how long it will be before humans are engaged in full-on warfare on the surface of Mars, over some kind of fuel or mineral discovered there, spreading our TOXIC inability to coexist further out into the universe.....

    Posted by Tom Lewis June 21, 08 02:34 PM

  1. SRAN' GOSPODN'A ! ! !

    Posted by Koss June 21, 08 03:27 PM

  1. The pictures are good if they are not faked. Subjected to cost versus benefit, I was content with the sci-fiction stories abour Mars. I wouldn't go to Mars if they paid me more than I was worth. Nevertheless, Mar's moons are more interesting than our moon.

    Posted by Cebar June 21, 08 04:13 PM

  1. The photos made my heart race.

    Posted by Nancy June 21, 08 04:38 PM

  1. These are stunning photos! What do they reveal of the past of Mars' life, and what do they revealf for the futue of life on earth?

    Posted by Anna June 21, 08 05:07 PM

  1. Why would you copy the name of Barry Ritholtz's blog?

    Posted by Walter June 21, 08 05:08 PM

  1. Great!!!

    This is a wonderful collection!

    Thanks!
    http://ajabgajab.blogspot.com

    Posted by dai June 21, 08 05:12 PM

  1. As I approach my 80th birthday and knowing we have come this far in my lifetime, I wonder what the next 80 years will bring. No doubt there will be human settlements on Mars and beyond. I can only emagine. These photos are amazing. Yes they are.

    Posted by LinC June 21, 08 05:14 PM

  1. The most impressive photos i've never seen.
    Astonishing .
    Jeronimo
    www.blogdoje.com.br

    Posted by Jeronimo June 21, 08 06:12 PM

  1. What would happen, I wonder, if a lump of frozen flesh was exposed to the Martian atmosphere during the Martian 'summer'? If it began to decompose, that would indicate the presence of microbes (hence 'life') wouldn't it? Just a thought. I wish there was a site that could provide scientific answers such questions - no matter how ludicrous the questions may seem to be.

    Posted by Norm June 21, 08 07:10 PM

  1. This is so amazing i am only 16 and seeing this pictures is so cool.It makes me wont to be the net astronaut.I am looking forward to seeing more pictures.

    Posted by nikolai June 21, 08 08:57 PM

  1. What beautiful photos. How can you not think we are so so small and insignificant in the sceme of life when you view these photos

    Posted by Lori Celentano June 21, 08 09:14 PM

  1. Out of this world!

    Posted by Anonymous June 21, 08 10:19 PM

  1. Why dont they take a piece of meat or fruit and drop it ont he surface and watch it for a few months...

    If there was some kind of bugs or microscopic organisms they would surely find this food.

    Also, would be interesting to see what happens the seed of the fruit.

    Posted by Michael Bromley June 21, 08 10:45 PM

  1. Mars can kiss my pasty white ass

    Posted by m June 21, 08 11:34 PM

  1. The tale of two planets, Venus and Mars, is instructive for planet earth. Venus has a very thick atmosphere of CO2 and Mars a thin atmosphere. Venous has a tremendous greenhouse effect ,and Mars, almost none. Venus is very hot and Mars cold. Earth is a unique planet, may be in the gallaxy, because of the conditions that can support carbon based life. The story speaks of dust storms. What, and why is there wind? Earth has mainly oxygen in the atmosphere, less at the higher troposphere. Our wind is mainly oxygen. Why is there oxygen at all in Mar's atmosphere? Most of our oxegen is from photosynthesis. I want to know what the rocks are made of. Why are their mountains? We get mountains from plate techtonics. There are no known plates on Mars.

    Posted by Jeffrey Kleiman June 22, 08 12:30 AM

  1. Thank you for such a wonderful set of beautifully curated and notated images!

    Posted by Chris Rodda June 22, 08 01:22 AM

  1. Absolutely amazing!!!!

    Posted by Moira Lawrie June 22, 08 01:27 AM

  1. I loved the Martian shots, but the image of our own Earth as seen from Mars is even more important and powerful. If we weren't already here, this pic would make us homesick.

    Posted by John June 22, 08 02:41 AM

  1. wonder what the stats are on this sites traffic

    must be getting good

    look at all the positive feedback!!!

    Posted by A_Photo_Editor June 22, 08 02:45 AM

  1. These aren't real. There are no stars in the background so they are fake as were the photos of the moon.

    Seriously, an amazing set of photographs.

    Posted by Pedro Gimeno June 22, 08 05:50 AM

  1. What a goddamn liar that earth is from this view.

    Posted by kt June 22, 08 07:04 AM

  1. To tk:
    re: "What a goddamn liar that earth is from this view."

    Why not? We take pictures of planets from our Earth and with zooming and cropping get similar images.

    Posted by Lesley June 22, 08 10:08 AM

  1. Desolate and yet beautiful....Seeing the clouds , the sunsets,the mountains you know we are not alone in this universe....awe inspiring..

    Posted by john the rib man June 22, 08 10:09 AM

  1. Thank you, thank you for this blog. These are just amazing photos.

    Posted by Openwater June 22, 08 10:16 AM

  1. The illiteracy, innumeracy, and general lack of exposure to critical thinking indicated by many of the above comments suggests to me that our days of being able to mount expeditions like this may be drawing to a close.

    Nevertheless: gorgeous, gorgeous shots, haunting and melancholy. Thank you.

    Posted by Saddened in NYC June 22, 08 11:09 AM

  1. Amazing photos...truely.
    But what is the point!! Mars will never support human life as we know it.

    NASA had to deliver a new toilet pump to the space station to relace the broken one. You just can't deliver parts to Mars on short notice. Man made things will always break down. You can't send back ups for everything on board a space ship.

    Posted by Stanley Cohen June 22, 08 12:18 PM

  1. Minus twenty-six degrees? No liquid water?

    After waterlogged weeks with our cornfields under six feet of flooding, that means Mars beats Wisconsin as a tourist destination.... no mosquitoes!

    Posted by Ray Kondrasuk June 22, 08 12:38 PM

  1. I'm retired now, but spent the better part of 30 years in Aerospace, first working to get our people to the moon, land on it, and later alot of the martian probes, that allow us to have these pictures---man that is one cool blue marble.

    Posted by Gary J. Gilmore June 22, 08 12:43 PM

  1. From a distance...hope.

    Posted by radicalmom June 22, 08 12:46 PM

  1. Sure they are pretty pictures, but at what cost? Wouldn't the money be better spent on the poor and suffering in our own beautiful country. If you want beautiful pictures and wonderful scenery take a trip to the Southwest. The beauty in the Southwest smokes those Mars photos.

    Posted by Mr. Realistic June 22, 08 12:52 PM

  1. Muy bonitas e iteresantes fotos grasias por informarnos como es la superficie de el planeta Marte I

    Ilhuicamina

    Posted by ilhuicamina Lopez June 22, 08 01:03 PM

  1. Thank you , Thank you , Thank you

    Posted by Akbar June 22, 08 01:41 PM

  1. Amazing pictures! This blog very cool!

    Alex
    http://www.recentnes.co.uk

    Posted by Alex June 22, 08 01:50 PM

  1. Wonder if gas is just as inflation driven up there? Great photos and thanks very much for bringing them to us.

    Posted by Waide June 22, 08 02:23 PM

  1. Beautiful !! Thank You !

    Posted by odango June 22, 08 02:52 PM

  1. When are we gonna ship seeds to Mars with the next rover, plant 'em, and just see what happens? If future humans are going to be living there, shouldn't we at least start that ball rolling?

    Posted by david June 22, 08 03:26 PM

  1. Wow...look at that big crater. Fabulous pictures. I learned so much and was amazed. Thank you.

    Posted by Jocelyn Cushinsky June 22, 08 03:58 PM

  1. omg! CGMs right.. O_O .. there should be a wind temple and ws too.. =p

    Posted by kon June 22, 08 04:11 PM

  1. Lesley, I don't think you got it.

    Posted by crowamonghens June 22, 08 05:47 PM

  1. Amazing and lovely. Wish I could see them all but 'Red X Syndrome ses in after the first half dozen.

    Posted by Jim Mac Aulay June 22, 08 07:01 PM

  1. Gee, pictures taken on earth must be fake because you can't see stars in the sky during daytime. OMG, this must mean we're not really here and we are all a government conspiracy.

    Posted by Shane June 22, 08 07:13 PM

  1. #125: Oh, snap.

    #113: A ton of those mountains are volcanoes, whether active or extinct, including Olympus Mons, whose summit is actually outside the Martian atmosphere.

    Posted by Jonathan June 22, 08 08:21 PM

  1. Looks like west Texas ;)

    Posted by Roberta June 22, 08 08:33 PM

  1. # 13 you're retarded... the sunlight's too bright for the cameras to catch the stars. NASA's not hiding anything, you must be one of those idiots who believe in UFO's

    Posted by jj June 22, 08 10:29 PM

  1. Gee #13, do you think this blog and the internet are real?

    Posted by JEM June 22, 08 11:12 PM

  1. There are not enough superlatives to describe these photos. And besides they've all been used here.
    I grew up in the '60s-70s, watching NASA trying to get to the moon, always wanting to be an astronaut. Then I went to every Apollo liftoff, always wanting to be an astronaut. Now, pics like these...do you think it's too late???? Thanks.

    Posted by jag June 22, 08 11:24 PM

  1. Anybody know what type of camera NASA uses?
    Maybe a digital Hasselblad?

    Posted by marty June 23, 08 12:09 AM

  1. All of these amazing things great and small happen throughout the cosmos whether or not there is a NASA probe there to wink at them as they occur. It takes our effort to visualize, create and send the probes there. It takes our minds to wonder at them. They cannot wonder about me. That star, that dust devil. No. We are amazing too. Seeing these things helps us to understand ourselves. It gives us context in some small way. To see a neighbor up close. To look back from there upon ourselves. Some say why do this? It is in our weave. It cannot be helped or stopped. This is what we do when we are at our very best. I hope there is much more to come. Thanks for the photos. A full archive of MER lander images is here:

    http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/index.html


    Matt in Cambridge, MA USA

    Posted by Matt June 23, 08 12:13 AM

  1. I wonder if any of these images are real or if this is just all a supercomputer fake rendering or a mixture of fake and real images , or even better that the real colors or objects in the photo have been removed what if it wasn't as desolate as the photos seemingly imply?

    Posted by annoyance June 23, 08 01:31 AM

  1. To tk:
    re: "What a goddamn liar that earth is from this view."

    Why not? We take pictures of planets from our Earth and with zooming and cropping get similar images.

    I meant how beautiful world it looks like, but most of us get almost nothing but suffering here. And this is not a goddamn emo talking here :)

    Posted by kt June 23, 08 01:36 AM

  1. Now I know what mars is like.
    Genious and daring.

    Managua, Nicaragua

    Posted by Blanca Castellon June 23, 08 02:04 AM

  1. On day, there we be a settlement in Mars, and soon humans will inhabitat the solar system.

    Posted by Enrique from Australia June 23, 08 03:05 AM

  1. I am most impressed by the photo of Phobos !

    Are there any closeups of Deimos ?

    Posted by Don June 23, 08 03:44 AM

  1. awesome pictures.....spectacular

    Posted by john jils June 23, 08 04:06 AM

  1. Â ÐÎÒ ÌÍÅ ÍÎÃÈ ! ÔÀÊ ÌÎÉ ÌÎÇÃ !!!!! ÌÀÐÑÑÑÑÑÑÑÑÑ !

    Posted by CLIP June 23, 08 04:20 AM

  1. Seeing these pictures make me think and wonder......

    Posted by Philip June 23, 08 04:57 AM

  1. You can make the stars disappear yourself if you want.

    Just go out with a camera on a clear night, one where you have a sky filled with stars and a large moon. Set the exposure to capture the detail on the moon - for a full moon this will be about 1/100th, f/11, ISO 100 - and take a photo.

    No stars!

    At that point you should consider yourself part of a conspiracy and immediately set out to discredit yourself.

    A fascinating collection, and a fascinating site. Many thanks Alan for editing these collections, and to the Globe for letting you.

    Posted by Michael in London June 23, 08 05:18 AM

  1. Since this is on the Globe's Web site, let me make a Boston tie-in ...

    I grew up just ouside Boston and was the first person from my High School to ever attend Caltech (over 30 years ago).

    Nowadays I am (among other things) the Webmaster for the NASA Photojournal Web site at JPL, just up the road from Caltech:

    http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/

    Most of these images (especially the ones from the Mars rovers and perhaps the Phoenix ones as well, but I haven't checked lately) should be available - as are most of the images from all the spacecraft JPL has sent into space - on that site. Please take advantage of it - your tax dollars at work!

    Posted by Riot Nrrrd™ June 23, 08 06:04 AM

  1. That's truly awesome and amazing. I heard Starbucks was opening a location near Hellas Basin...

    Posted by Anonymous June 23, 08 07:24 AM

  1. Ack-Ack .. .. Ack-Ack, Ack-Ack.

    Have a nice day.

    Posted by Anthony June 23, 08 08:06 AM

  1. Exploration, like wondering, is a waste of time and sometimes money -- until its results amaze and lift us from the mundane everyday.

    Posted by Ron June 23, 08 08:44 AM

  1. This was amazing! Im just 11 but it seems very interesting! I didn't know that mars was that cool.
    thanks!

    Posted by keera June 23, 08 08:46 AM

  1. Mars is not cool by the way. Yes appreciated photography. Thanks to Nasa and Boston Team.

    Posted by bhavik June 23, 08 09:28 AM

  1. Incredible views. I wish we could use this technology to view the Face and Pyramid structures so we can confirm of deny all rumors. But I guess that won't happen in our lifetime.

    Posted by Kevin Borah June 23, 08 09:51 AM

  1. What great photos! It amazes me when I think that we are actually looking at another planet. I hope that when we finally get to reach and colonize other worlds that we leave our politics and ignorance (these photos are faked) here on Earth.
    I also hope that if we ever do find intelligent life elsewhere, that we leave our religion and predjudice out of it. How awful it would be to find that after hundreds of years we learned nothing from our treatment of new cultures here.
    Mankind may have a chance to prove ourselves, here's hoping we don't blow it.

    Posted by Brian June 23, 08 09:56 AM

  1. Wow!

    Posted by The Flea June 23, 08 10:10 AM

  1. OMG thats cool

    Posted by dev June 23, 08 10:21 AM

  1. Awesome pictures, yes, but how can any thinking person consider these pictures and the conditions of this barren rock -- no air to breathe, water evaporates instantly, horrible temperatures, unimaginable dust storms, no shelter from toxic rays, a journey of a year from the earth, 45 minutes for a radio signal to reach the earth, etc. -- and seriously talk about colonizing the place!

    Ok, we have spent billions to find this out, fine; now let's get back to spending the money to maintain our schools and bridges and mental illness treatment and all the thousands of other things disintegrating on this planet, the only place that will ever support human life.

    Posted by Joseph Wilson June 23, 08 10:26 AM

  1. It will be so exciting once Earth has fully colonized this new West and are finally militarizing it against each country's national enemies. By then, we will have enough feeds from Mars to be able to watch the action unfold from time to time. It will be fascinating to see the rough red terrain peppered with the twisted hulks of Chinese space tanks, or the dessicated corpses of an elite Australian sniper squad whose dropship has been disabled by a storm.

    Posted by Thaddeus Hardpump June 23, 08 10:32 AM

  1. What amazing photos! What a fantastic solarsystem , not to mention Universe... we are all part of. Enjoy!

    Posted by Kirstin (Denmark) June 23, 08 10:41 AM

  1. "We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction but by instruments of knowledge and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest but by a banner of peace." JFK - Rice Unversity - September 1962

    RIP, Jack. And thanks for the foresight and vision which produced these photos.

    Posted by Insignificant Mike in insignificant Massachusetts, USA June 23, 08 10:42 AM

  1. unbelieveable,absolutely stunning.
    Why do the tracks of the vehicle looks as if they have been melted,is that ice or water in or over the ground

    Posted by Johannes Hooge Pedersen June 23, 08 10:57 AM

  1. Thanks God for His Creation.
    I am most impressed by the photo of Phobos, and Amazing pictures! This blog very cool! The photo of earth and the moon as seen from mars is most incredible.

    Over all I can say fantastic!
    Martuza
    Brussels

    Posted by Martuza AL Kadri June 23, 08 11:29 AM

  1. I wonder if there is an Irish pub up there. It would not surprise me. It might be called Martian O' Neill's ; -D

    Great Pics.. and amazing the human race has come this far..

    Posted by Kieran June 23, 08 11:42 AM

  1. While I think these pictures are fascinating and I am personally fascinated with space. If God intended for us to be on Mars I believe He would have placed us there. We are still trying to build that Tower of Babel aren't we.

    Posted by M. Palmer June 23, 08 12:06 PM

  1. I noticed "white stuff" in the tire tracks of one of the rovers. Isn't this the same "white stuff" NASA is now calling proof of water?

    Posted by David June 23, 08 12:34 PM

  1. Just downloaded these pix to my desktop. I'm going to make a special slideshow background folder just for shots from this blog. Terrestrial pix are nice, but nothing beats views from another planet!

    Posted by Laptop June 23, 08 12:41 PM

  1. These explorations and photos put us in perspective, minimizing our trivial differences and collect our thoughts towards a common goal of survival; to adapt to life on other planets.

    Can we exploit other planets before we run out of resources on Earth?

    Posted by John de Sherborn June 23, 08 01:24 PM

  1. www.evergreenspace.com
    Excellent exporation of outer space.

    Posted by Tony June 23, 08 01:27 PM

  1. And people claim there is no God! "And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands" Hebrews 1:10

    Posted by Teri June 23, 08 01:37 PM

  1. wat a great bunch of photos, i wonder wat if they would be real....
    very much looking like some of my friends 3DMax renderings...
    yeap....
    :)


    Posted by Alin Buda June 23, 08 01:38 PM

  1. To see what Mars might look like if the ice all melted, visit

    http://wow-really.blogspot.com/2007/12/water-on-mars.html

    Posted by Tom June 23, 08 02:03 PM

  1. Looks ripe for terra-forming. We can do it. Get some modified lichens there first, then build on them as the atmosphere changes. It will take 300-500 years, but that just means we need to get started!

    Posted by Tom Hollingshead June 23, 08 02:21 PM

  1. Great pictures of mighty beings hanging in space, depicting man's technological mettle to be able to locate them in the infinite space, as well as proving his insignificance in 'Space-Air-Fire-Matter' aggregate!

    Posted by Observer June 23, 08 02:22 PM

  1. The pictures are almost unbeleiveably incredible, but are greatly eclipsed by the news of water ice on the planet. One can imagine strange landscapes, but sublimating water ice is just too phenomenal - no pun intended. WHAT A FIND!

    We could not have wished for more.

    Posted by Paul Thibodeau June 23, 08 02:46 PM

  1. The English language does not have the ability to express the beauty displayed in pictures or the diligence of human technology that got us there to see it.
    CLW

    Posted by Charles L. wood June 23, 08 03:33 PM

  1. I claim everything in these pictures for myself and my family. Standard shotgun rules.

    Posted by Jordan Montgomery Lewis June 23, 08 03:41 PM

  1. I love the images, amazing work.

    Its just a shame the commenters mention god and url's to their own rubbish web sites.

    Science FTW!

    Posted by dave June 23, 08 04:02 PM

  1. ROTFLMAO....Ack, Ack....Ack Ack Ack Ack! OMG TOO FUNNY! Fantabulous Fotos!

    Posted by Davidsmountain June 23, 08 04:07 PM

  1. the best of pictures is a marty planet..............
    i from brazilians and ilove astronomics

    Posted by andre luiz xavier dos anjos June 23, 08 04:10 PM

  1. Ice? Let me know when they strike oil.

    Posted by Spaceboy June 23, 08 04:21 PM

  1. Nice images. It's not worth the tax payers money. I can get similar photos 50 miles outside of Vegas.

    Posted by Dennis Doyle June 23, 08 04:22 PM

  1. Its also funny that people keep mentioning god. Mars is as old as the earth, roughly 4.5 Billion years old, according to the bible its barely 3000-4000 years old.

    I am truly astounded by the amazing intelligence of humans to make the journey to Mars and send us the pics.

    I am absolutely amazed too that humans with so much intelligence and evidence of our past still believe that the earth is a few thousand years old and that there is a supreme being calling the shots, Why does he make children suffer so?

    Posted by dave June 23, 08 04:22 PM

  1. dave wrote:
    "I am truly astounded by the amazing intelligence of humans to make the journey to Mars and send us the pics."

    Yeah me too. Then idiots, like some of the guys above, post stupid comments about conspiricies and kind of make you think again...

    #70 - Are you serious?!

    #75 - Um...same question

    #89 - LMFAO!

    Amazing pics though. Thaks for posting them Boston.

    Posted by Havoc6538 June 23, 08 05:05 PM

  1. OMFG!

    Posted by RLX June 23, 08 05:34 PM

  1. It's a great step arriving there! :)

    Posted by RLX June 23, 08 05:36 PM

  1. Great pics! I especially liked those shots of west Texas...

    Posted by spamster June 23, 08 09:01 PM

  1. As a charter member of the Planetary Society, and an amateur astronomer, I have seen these photos many times. Nevertheless, I am still thrilled by the animation of the dust devils spinning across the Martian plains. My name is on one of the twin Rovers (and the latest, Planetary Society supported mission, Phoenix) on the Disc which does double duty as a solar gnomon and photographic color calibrator.If you find these images inspiring, you might consider joining The Planetary Society, a group that has helped keep science in NASA's budget and objectives for more than twenty years.
    Dr Daniel M. Young, Escanaba, MI

    Posted by Daniel M Young June 23, 08 09:52 PM

  1. we are so, so small........

    Posted by joey big time June 23, 08 11:07 PM

  1. If you let and your imagination fly a little there is the extreme possibility that if all the water in the martian past percolated underground very slowly AND there was a civilation around at that time, such a civilization might have been able to adapt to underground life. Mars may look barren at the surface, but what might possibly lurk beneath the soil where the water may be? This pictures are an amazing panorama of a planet that looks very much earthlike, except for the extreme weather

    Posted by SpaceExplorer June 23, 08 11:19 PM

  1. No 174 was expressing exactly my thoughts and musings. Looks to me like more dust than water. A liottle wind and away it goes. Maybe?

    Otherwise the pictures are so fantastic, to bad so many on th earth go hungry while we spend billions for no reason at all except maybe try to prove there is no
    God. My my.

    Posted by John Kefalas June 24, 08 12:13 AM

  1. ok good byebye!

    Posted by Anonymous June 24, 08 05:26 AM

  1. I restate how wonderful these pics are. Have not seen them altogether like this before. Powerful stuff!
    Sadly, I also echo John K's (#199) remarks as it upsets me to think we have the money for this while conditions on our own planet are so deparate for so many...even here in the U.S.

    Posted by Ron Gonella June 24, 08 06:04 AM

  1. Metanoiesete. So the "Kingdom" is within.

    Posted by Charlie McNamee June 24, 08 06:17 AM

  1. Such a gorgeous view of a place that's so alien, and yet so relatively close to us...
    Thank you for these.
    I am inspired to re-create them with 3-D rendering software.

    Aloha!

    ~Tracy, Honolulu HI

    Posted by Tracy Chan June 24, 08 06:31 AM

  1. To the people commenting about god I offer the following.
    -- Concepts of god had these luminaries pasted on the firmament. Just outside the sphere of the firmament were the heavens where god and company were overly concerned with the happenings on earth. There was no mars. There were no deep space galaxies. God was small when science was small. When science got big, god had to grow too.
    --Man made god in the beginning. As our knowledge of the world expands we have remade god. He, she or it has to grow with our ever expanding world.

    Arthur Cammers, Kentucky


    Posted by Arthur Cammers June 24, 08 08:52 AM

  1. There is a certain bonding with our surroundings if you have ever spent much time in the air. As a retired military pilot I have had the opportunity to experience such feelings on some beautiful night cross-countries and it is a double-edged sword. I felt like part of all that was going on, but at the same time I felt so small and Insignificant.

    There is so much out there to learn, regardless of your religious beliefs, I hope there is a place we can go and finally get all the answers to all the things we wanted to know about after our life here is completed.

    Keep the faith and God Bless the United States of America!!!

    Posted by Robert Youngs June 24, 08 09:02 AM

  1. Indescritível ! Fantástico ! Inacreditável.... Parabéns . Precisa mais ?

    Posted by Meller June 24, 08 09:05 AM

  1. that is so cool i love science and looking at planets,stars and moons.

    Posted by hope June 24, 08 10:17 AM

  1. Nice pictures... I've enjoyed seeing them on NASAs web site as they come in. It's fun to see them compiled in one place.
    One question; how many skies are there over Mars? I always thought there was only one, but I guess modern journalism has re-defined planetary physics? (referring to "Martian skies seen above a rolling horizon...")

    Posted by Matt June 24, 08 10:18 AM

  1. Great pictures, but are some of them real or just some desert ?

    Posted by Gavin, Ireland June 24, 08 10:42 AM

  1. Looking at theese amazing pictures, I feel like we (the human race) now are much closer to the fantastic future moment where we will discover that "we are not alone" - I mean we now for sure that there is another "world" !
    Thanks a lot !

    Posted by Uffe Schulin June 24, 08 11:47 AM

  1. So let me get this straight, in 1969 we landed a man on the moon. Now we have spacecraft that have landed on mars and are sending back killer photos, BUT we still don't have automobiles that can get over 40 miles per gallon???Q!!! Something doesn't compute! Better yet, why don't we have cars that can run on something other than gas and are cost effective to build!!

    Posted by Frank S. June 24, 08 01:05 PM

  1. Fantastiske billeder, underligt med skyer...

    Posted by Anonymous June 24, 08 01:12 PM

  1. Fantastic pictures, I cant wait to here from Nasa about all the new discovery's inn the future! Thank sfor all the good pictures. And I do follow the ISS projekt too! GREAT!

    Posted by tom711 June 24, 08 03:59 PM

  1. Whoever said that these pics were taken in the Arizona desert better come in out of the sun, himself. There are no parts of the Arizona desert that even comes close to looking like that...plus desert vegetation abounds. Don't see much if that in these shots. And I ought to know...I live in it.

    Posted by DJ June 24, 08 04:20 PM

  1. Atemberaubend schöne Bilder, ein Wunder an Technik und Fotografie!! Ich hoffe, dass dies den Menschen klar macht, wie sie mit ihrer eigenen Welt umzugehen haben, damit diese unsere Erde für Andere ein eben solches Wunder darstellt!

    Posted by Rainer, Germany June 24, 08 04:30 PM

  1. Nothing but red dust on very expensive pictures. May be they'll find and pay someone who to go there sometimes. Why else he should leave the green? Fame? For sure primitive motives at all.

    Posted by Nex June 24, 08 05:20 PM

  1. Too much! Its so close! Waow . . !

    Posted by F.H.J.Lock June 24, 08 05:28 PM

  1. The future of our planet is shown here if we continue to follow the ill-conceived religions which dictate proliferation of human life on Earth. Time for us to end the senseless indoctrination-from-birth of Christianity, Islam and others, and use our intelligence to reduce human population beginning with one-child per female maximum. The planet you save will be our own.

    Posted by Sid June 24, 08 05:46 PM

  1. that is so cool i love those pictures.

    Posted by Anonymous June 24, 08 05:55 PM

  1. 95% CO2 but no greenhouse effect or Martian Global Warming. How is that possible? Do you suppose they don't have enough Water Vapor?

    Posted by Prentiss Davis June 24, 08 06:38 PM

  1. These are excellent pictures; they make it fell like Mars' surface is only a few feet away! The viedo of the dust devil is excellent.

    Posted by Richard Schmude, Jr. June 24, 08 06:52 PM

  1. With the best available technology in the 19th century they thought they saw canals on Mars, and got all excited. Now with our latest technology we see deserts on Mars and get excited. What will those after us see in a hundred years time? Definitely not what we see.
    Do we only see what we think we see?

    Posted by Wilfred, Cape Town June 24, 08 07:14 PM

  1. The Lord God Almighty that made all of this is building a place in His heaven
    for me to live forever.
    I would love to visit Mars someday and hopefully God will let me go see.
    WOW, what a thought!

    Posted by Don M Owens June 24, 08 08:18 PM

  1. I can see why we are known as 'The Blue Planet', from a distance our earth is so stunningly beautiful.

    I PRAY TO GOD THAT WE ALL KEEP IT THAT WAY!

    Posted by jilly T June 24, 08 10:09 PM

  1. I was going to write my positive opinion about the pictures of Mars and the persons walking in space ... but then I thought I will just keep quiet and remember the projects I had in Grade School Science, Junior High School
    Science, and then on to high school and college space science courses.
    What a marvelous free education that my parents paid for through the real
    estate tax programs. I have received a marvelous education and now at
    my age of 78 I am seeing pictures due to the NASA program and the pictures given to us through The Boston Globe. So, to all the "Nay Sayers" we really do
    need you and your negative attitudes as it helps guys like me to appreciate
    the positive side of life.

    Posted by John F. Burns, Scottsdale, AZ June 24, 08 11:23 PM

  1. You don't worry about toilet pumps, Stanley. You build outhouses.

    Now, enjoy the wondrous beauty of these gorgeous pictures.

    Posted by MikeB June 24, 08 11:39 PM

  1. flot, imponerende

    Posted by Anonymous June 25, 08 12:07 AM

  1. Very nice shot's! Great to see a place where there is no McDonalds, Burger King or KFC! (yet!)

    Posted by Philip Hilt June 25, 08 02:16 AM

  1. I am truly amazed at these photos. Makes me wonder all kinds of things like what it would be like to actually be there and personally experience the feeling, and all those views. It also reminds me that we are just a little speck of dust in the universe and there's so much out there to explore that mankind can just never finish exploring for as long as we exist .

    Posted by Ricky Abdul June 25, 08 03:14 AM

  1. wow, those are some really nice pictures :)
    I hope we have a human operable base on Mars soon...

    Posted by Oskars June 25, 08 03:26 AM

  1. Hej Harry!

    Posted by Mike Mess June 25, 08 04:37 AM

  1. welll its good

    Posted by me to now June 25, 08 06:55 AM

  1. Responding to #90 and #220 comments regarding global warming on Mars. I read as much as a year ago that there is indeed global warming on the red planet and I have used that fact in arguments with people who think Man is responsible for global warming on Earth. Just google "mars global warming" and you will find plenty of articles about the Martian ice caps shrinking. This points to the Sun as the culprit, and once again we are not as important as we like to think we in the grand scheme of things. One of the many websites I found:
    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_ice-age_031208.html
    I too will make a screen saver from these wonderful pics! Thanks for posting them!

    Posted by Jim Davidson June 25, 08 06:57 AM

  1. Grt Work

    Posted by Anonymous June 25, 08 07:06 AM

  1. COSMOS ROCKS

    Posted by Requirer June 25, 08 08:46 AM

  1. waauw...great pics.....just great!

    Hope the mission goes well, and hopefully we´ll see some more breathtaken pics of mars and it´s surface.

    Posted by Thomas Larsson June 25, 08 08:49 AM

  1. Bang, well a big bang and next thing you know we have an explanation for everything. I've heard and seen dynamite work? It pretty much makes a mess of things. Explosions routinely work rather mindlessly. Pure logic would find that the more we discover about the incredible macro and micro complexities found in life and the universe, the less likely it was mindless. Consider the obvious, design demands a designer. PTL

    Posted by paul mcandrew June 25, 08 09:00 AM

  1. I think whatever we spent, these pictures are worth it to expand our imaginations and to see the Earth and Moon from Mars - wow!

    And may it inspire us to blast through other limitations and make that car that runs on something other than gas. And right the wrongs in the world.

    Posted by Wayne Marshall June 25, 08 11:41 AM

  1. why dont you people listen to this link with John Lear, (son of the inventor of the Lear jet...), he has some interesting 'comments', about mars... (something about astronauts, then some other astronauts you dont hear about...)

    http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=john+lear&sitesearch=#

    Posted by xman(wannabe...) June 25, 08 12:30 PM

  1. I wasn't going to look at the Mars set of photos, because it's not a topic that excites me, but when I did I was awed at how real everything looked. I'm used to seeing photos from space that look blurry or incomprehensible, and it was moving and eerie to see photos with such a familiar, accessible feel to them that were, in fact, taken on Mars. A little hard to wrap my brain around it.

    Posted by Anna Embree June 25, 08 02:25 PM

  1. Truely astounding that we can accomplish a feat such as this and still not have simple issues solved in our "real world"

    Ken...Missouri

    Posted by Ken Wilhelm June 25, 08 05:08 PM

  1. Great. Send more pictures

    Posted by Allan June 25, 08 05:28 PM

  1. Awesome!!!!! no word's .....

    Posted by kethrax June 25, 08 05:38 PM

  1. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation, Dr. Carl Edward Sagan (09NOV34 - 20DEC/96), and all those other great scientists and explorers. Just can't wait till Cable gets "Sunrise Mars".

    Posted by Q-Branch..... Albuquerque June 25, 08 07:41 PM

  1. fascinating....awesome...amazing panorama...just wow !!! This senior grandmother on the west coast of Canada has seen a lot of inspiring geography from our lush green everything here - to the dry sandy desert of Arizona, and nothing takes my breath away like these photos. Many, many thanks to all responsible from one who will always appreciate the effort put forward.

    Posted by Grandma on the go June 26, 08 01:59 AM

  1. Amazing.....Gr8 work......nice pics.........Want to spend a long holiday there..........

    Posted by Saurabh Jain June 26, 08 02:24 AM

  1. Reallyy wowwwwwww

    Posted by kittu June 26, 08 03:55 AM

  1. it´s amazing... bealtiful,,,,hello martians I´m mrs William I see your home but didn´t see you, will see me?..... no`t! ufaaaaaaaaaaaa.......

    Posted by william haddad from Brazil June 26, 08 07:26 AM

  1. Where are the green Martian creatures? :) Fantastic!!!

    Posted by Tacito Rolim June 26, 08 07:34 AM

  1. Thanks to NASA.... We are able to see the beauty of MARS....... Really nice photos..

    Posted by Sandeep June 26, 08 08:01 AM

  1. Fantastic pictures, fantastic work of the creators of all the technique.

    Posted by Karel Jicinsky June 26, 08 09:09 AM

  1. Que hermosura de fotos.
    Gracias por permitirnos desde nuestros hogares y detrás de un computador, compartir y disfrutar tanta belleza y alta tecnología de los EEUU para el mundo.

    Posted by Rosina Pittelli June 26, 08 10:03 AM

  1. Is it a surprise that everything God has made is beautiful?

    Posted by chita June 26, 08 02:05 PM

  1. good pictures,would love to go!!!!!!! Vincent, age 10.

    Posted by vincent June 26, 08 02:39 PM

  1. Carl Sagan would be so excited to hear about the recent Mars news regarding water, nutrients, etc. If there is primordial life on Mars, I now think we will discover it in the next 50 years! This kind of thing makes me giddy. Brian, age 28.

    Posted by brian June 26, 08 09:00 PM

  1. Coco de mula

    Posted by marco June 26, 08 10:43 PM

  1. Nuostabios nuotraukos!!!
    Tebunie vanduo ir gyvybe - jame!!!

    Posted by Jonas Vaiskunas June 26, 08 11:02 PM

  1. I see I see I see a litlle green martian I see

    Posted by william haddad from Brazil June 27, 08 12:12 AM

  1. I've been there...

    Posted by George Muprittleton June 27, 08 08:17 AM

  1. silent, with clouds rushing overhead, dustballs racing in the desert and a sun-filled sky, how surreal (to us). These are faulous!

    Posted by doviine June 27, 08 10:29 AM

  1. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
    i really wanna go to the moon it has always been a ambition of mine now i wanna go to mars as well!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Posted by martian from outer space! June 27, 08 12:36 PM

  1. Re: Piclens
    Please do not enable Piclens. Not all of us use MS Internet Exploder; or MS Windows...
    Thanks!
    Gogga

    --- There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve. ~ Henry David Thoreau ---

    Posted by Gogga June 27, 08 05:14 PM

  1. yeah xD Calkiem niezle

    Posted by Nena June 27, 08 06:18 PM

  1. hello carl; just dropping you a note and wishing you well.

    to the phoenix crews and previous mission constituents; thank you.

    great uploads and wonderful job on the site.

    Posted by alogicbit June 27, 08 10:19 PM

  1. EXCELLENT PICTURES

    Posted by REJIVS June 28, 08 07:04 AM

  1. It's so Wonderful and Interesting all about the universe
    I WONDER WHO MADE US

    Posted by ESTEBAN MONTOYA June 28, 08 12:23 PM

  1. The photos are so cool and I very much appreciate the explanations. I've been a space nut for years. I think this site could start some young minds on the path to an interest in space.

    Posted by Ellery June 28, 08 03:46 PM

  1. Just incredible BRAVO!!!!

    Posted by ANA June 28, 08 06:26 PM

  1. I don't mind paying taxes for this.

    Posted by robert June 28, 08 08:31 PM

  1. Back in the 1980's, (up here in Canada), our National Research Council placed an ad in our national newspapers, for applications to their Astronauts Program.
    I pulled a bunch of 'astronaut ' cartoons from my filing cabinet- I had collected those things since I was a kid- and I sent them along with a letter, to the NRC, expressing an interest. (For 'experience', I claimed that I "took up space in school",
    (which is not exactly true- there was nothing as interesting as that, in our schools at that time.)
    I got a neato letter back, from the head of the personnel dept. of the NRC, in which he said: " Those cartoons that you sent, are now plastered on all of the bulletin boards of the NRC- by all means, send us your resume, and we will find a place for you, somewhere in our organization." Quote and unquote.
    In my response to that man, I said: "Thank you very much for your kind offer, but I was unemployed when I sent that to you, and I have since found employment- in a goldmine in Northern Ontairo, and I choose to remain where I am."
    I want to go to Mars! I am a qualified Industrial Mechanic, ( with over thirty years of experience), and I can fix anything you send there!)
    I am hereby offerring our Canadian Space Agency , an offer that they can't refuse: I don't want to come back to earth- my trip to Mars, is one way! Anybody reading this, bombard those turkeys with emails, (this guy really wants to go, and he has skills that you can use.
    Thanks in advance,
    Dave Campbell

    Posted by dave campbell June 28, 08 10:20 PM

  1. Not impressed, except for the image of phobos.
    why must they manipulate the original color? Regardless of how unimpressive the original coloration of the martian soil might be, it should be presented as such.

    Posted by Of the Eldar June 29, 08 02:24 AM

  1. Thank you for these amazing photos. We are such a small part of the universe!

    Posted by kathy June 29, 08 02:47 AM

  1. #270 dave campbell, just in case you change your mind about not coming back, and since you are a qualified Industrial Mechanic, you would be able to keep going the NASA plant that can go with you which converts the Martian CO2 to CH4 and H2O for the purpose of refuelling to return to Earth.

    The principle invoked here is Paul Sabatier's, who won the Nobel in Chemistry in 1912 for the very many hundreds of reactions he described. This particular one is called the methanation of CO2 and described thus;

    4H2 + CO2 + heat = CH4 + 2H2O

    It would take many months to refuel the craft, as the energy to maintain the reactions would come from the sun, whose wattage as received on Mars is half that received on Earth.

    The O2 would of course come from the electrolysis of the H2O or from the water ice already there.

    The H2 to kick off the process would come in a small cylinder with the space craft, and after initiation, would be available from aforesaid electrolysis of water.

    All this should still be on the NASA website.

    But what is especially useful about this methanation process is that we can use it here on earth as we are daily told that Global Warming is gonna get us because of all this CO2 from the fossil fuel we are addicted to.

    It has been suggested that we pump millions of tons of CO2 into the ground and hope it never bursts out back again. Does anyone believe that it never will, and with a vengeance ?

    So, there is clearly the very safe alternative of turning waste CO2 into a fuel, CH4 , otherwise known as natural gas, rather than letting it go as per normal or trying to pump it into empty oil or gas reservoirs deep underground.

    The energy for this methanation comes from the sun - naturally, and surely overall costs have to be cheaper in every which way, on top of which is the income from selling this natural gas !

    Probably, the oil companies wouldn't like the competition, which is why govts spout the sequestration nonsense which is a direct consequence of shouting that CO2 is responsible for Global Warming, which it is isn't, but that's another story.

    Posted by michaelm June 29, 08 03:06 AM

  1. I don't get it.
    If the atmosphere is 95% carbondioxide, why isn't it a green house?

    Posted by David June 29, 08 04:01 AM

  1. Think of what we (the U.S.) could accomplish if we weren't spending all our money on waging war and maintaining the world's largest military! And no..., it has nothing to do defending freedom. That's just part of the con game.

    Posted by G.W. Bush June 29, 08 09:01 AM

  1. Mars! I wonder if it has oil?

    Posted by marooned June 29, 08 12:05 PM

  1. AWESOME PICTURES ... but the colour representations are clearly misleading.

    The colour in many shots has been altered to portray Mars as the "Red Planet" rather than revealing the darker colour of the soil and light blue sky.

    First thing's first: THE MARS SKY IS BLUE. The colour of the sky works the same way as it does on earth. The relatively short wavelength of blue light is bent by the small molecules that make up the atmosphere.

    The only time the sky becomes RED is when there is a heap of Dust blown up. Being bigger than CO2 or O2 molecules, the Dust reflects the longer wavelength of Red light. Same as on Earth.

    And we also know the Mars atmosphere is devoid of dust a great deal of the time from the space based photography provided by the orbiters. The shots we are getting of the surface are crystal clear - no dust haze !

    On most days the Mars sky is a pale blue colour thanks to the thin atmosphere's minimal light scattering effect. Same as at high altitude on earth. Same physics, different planet.

    NASA also likes to show the Martian SURFACE as much lighter than it actually is. Just as the sky has been altered, the ground colouring has been presented in a way to represent a "Red Mars."

    Ordinarily the soil is mostly a DARK reddish colour. The effect of this soil on light operates the same as our Moon. The Moon's soil is a dark grey and reflects the sunlight as white -somewhat like a mirror. The Mars soil on the other hand is dark and reddish, and reflects the sunlight as light Red.

    Altering images is fine in terms of revealing certain details but it can hinder comparative analysis based on colour comparisons against earth geology and atmospheric physics.

    I don't know why, but NASA likes to obfuscate various facts about Mars.


    Google all this stuff and find out for yourself.

    Posted by Marvin the Martian June 29, 08 12:13 PM

  1. Oh how insignificant we Humanoid animals are!
    Posted by BBinNC June 29, 2008 1:50PM

    Posted by BB KNOWLES June 29, 08 01:51 PM

  1. I am in awe at the technology involved in obtaining these pictures. Congratulations to all who contributed to this endeaver. About the missing stars, please be advised that they go to Italy as everyone else does!

    Posted by Vincent J. Colangelo June 29, 08 02:18 PM

  1. Amazing pictures, thank you.

    Posted by debbie June 29, 08 08:34 PM

  1. Incredible Mars

    Posted by Joydeep Banerjee(Diphu) June 30, 08 05:03 AM

  1. Most clear and amazing pictures of Mars.
    The planet is really very beautiful.
    Thanks.

    Posted by Rahul June 30, 08 05:55 AM

  1. To be able to see something like this of magnitude is incredible. To think that 50 years ago the people of the world first started their baby steps to the space. This is truly an accomplishment that I don't think we will ever see again in our lifetime. I truly think we will go afar.

    Posted by Pat Bosserman June 30, 08 10:00 AM

  1. Awesome & really amazing pictures. Thumps Up to the NASA team for they superb effort to capture a "New" seperate world, which humans would be really interested to know more about it

    Posted by Santosh Ramamurthy June 30, 08 10:05 AM

  1. Think where we've come since our first "simple" satellites circled the earth. Makes me wish I could live for another 60+ years...just to see what's coming "tomorrow."

    Posted by CPMJohn imcool.com June 30, 08 11:09 AM

  1. What an incredible testimony of the greatness of God. His universe is simply awesome !! It brings chills to me when I think of the 7 days of creation and what a sight it must have been to see it all begin and form over all this time. We can see only a speck of His Greatness. How magnificent it will be when this simple, earthly life ends and we can glimpse the wonders of Heaven from a whole different perspective.

    Posted by K.D.Wardlow June 30, 08 12:08 PM

  1. I am profoundly grateful to all the humans who advanced technology to such levels that I am gifted with these remarkable pictures. If there ever was life in Mars, then we really ought to take better care of our little blue planet. WALL-E just opened this past weekend. Go see it. It is quite a profound (animated) movie.

    Posted by Beatriz Grayson June 30, 08 12:15 PM

  1. I've always wonder about Mars.
    And now becomes a fantastic reality.
    Great!

    Posted by Francisco Etelvino Biondo June 30, 08 01:53 PM

  1. I was born in 1932. I can't imagine what my grandsons' lives may cover in terms of scientific discovery, but, boy! have the last 75 years been great or what?

    Posted by Dr Martin Woodhouse July 1, 08 02:47 AM
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