High resolution images of Mars. Photos of Mars. Scratches on Mars

While a person is just preparing to land on Mars, automatic stations are working with might and main on the surface of the Red Planet, and artificial satellites fly in its orbit, making up detailed map the surface of the fourth planet from the Sun. We present a selection of 10 best shots Mars and its surfaces, which bring the distant planet a little closer.

Photo of the surface of Mars along with the Mariner Valley - a giant system of canyons that were formed during the formation of the planet. To obtain one complete image, the scientists had to put together more than 100 separate images transmitted to Earth by the Viking-2 spacecraft.

The Victoria Impact Crater, about 800 meters in diameter, was photographed by the Opportunity rover on October 16, 2006. Sending such a high-quality image to Earth is not an easy task. It took three weeks to get all the parts of this image.

The largest impact crater on Mars with a diameter of 22 kilometers is called "Endeavor". He was photographed by the same tireless "Opportunity" on March 9, 2012.

The color of these Martian sand dunes resembles waves on the surface of the earth's sea. Sand dunes form on Mars in the same way as on Earth - under the influence of the wind, moving several meters per year. The picture was taken by the rover " Curiosity "November 27, 2015.

This image of a small impact crater taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows just how much ice can be lurking beneath the surface of Mars. A meteorite that fell to the planet's surface was able to break through the surface layer and expose a large amount of frozen water. Perhaps billions of years ago, there were indeed seas and oceans on the surface of Mars.

The famous "selfie" of the Curiosity rover taken on January 19, 2016 near the Gale Impact Crater.

This is what a sunset looks like on Mars. The picture was taken by the Spirit device on May 19, 2005. The bluish tint of the sky during sunset or sunrise on Mars occurs for the same reasons why we see blue skies on Earth. Light waves of a certain length, corresponding to blue and blue light, scatter, colliding with molecules of gas and dust, so we perceive the sky as blue. Only on Mars, where the atmosphere is much less dense, such an effect can be seen when light passes through the maximum thickness of the air - that is, at dawn or dusk.

Opportunity wheel tracks and a dusty whirlwind in the background. And although dusty whirlwinds are quite common on Mars, catching one of them in the frame is a real success.

It seems as if this photograph was taken not 225 million kilometers from Earth by the Curiosity apparatus, but somewhere in a desert area on our planet.

Used images: NASA

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Since ancient times, the attention of people has been attracted by the stars. The brightest of them, for example, Mars, have attracted humanity for many hundreds of years. With the development of civilization, mankind had enormous technical capabilities to fly - launches of spaceships and satellites have become commonplace, and with this, it has become possible to get to know the planets of our solar system better. The planet Mars is one of the most studied planets in the solar system and there are many amazing and interesting facts about Mars.

Interesting fact number 1

The name of the planet comes from the name of the god of war among the Romans due to the fact that the color of Mars is very similar to blood. The second name of Mars is the Red Planet. Scientists have hypothesized that this color is caused by the presence of a large amount of iron oxides in the planet's atmosphere.

Interesting fact number 2

On the surface of Mars lies the Meriner Valley Canyon, which is many times longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon in North America.

Interesting fact number 3

There are mountains on Mars much higher than Everest, and Mount Olympus is currently the highest mountain in the solar system known to mankind.

Interesting fact number 4

No human or animal would have survived on Mars without a special spacesuit. The pressure on Mars is so low that oxygen in the blood would instantly turn into gas bubbles, leading to instant death.

Interesting fact number 5

The atmosphere on Mars is 100 times more rarefied than on Earth, but this is quite enough for the formation of wind and clouds.

Interesting fact number 6

Temperatures at the equator of Mars range from +30 ºC at noon to - 80 ºC at midnight. Near the poles, it can drop to -143 ºC.

Interesting fact number 7

Due to the absence of an ozone layer on Mars, at sunrise the planet's surface receives lethal doses of radiation.

Interesting fact number 8

On Mars, the most ferocious and powerful dust storms known to mankind very often rage. The wind speed sometimes reaches more than 180 km per hour, storms last for several weeks and can cover the entire planet. Most often, storms occur when Mars approaches the Sun.

Interesting fact number 9

Of all the spacecraft launched to Mars, only one third were able to successfully complete their mission, the rest disappeared without a trace. Scientists have suggested that the planet may have a Martian "Bermuda Triangle", which absorbs space satellites.

Interesting fact number 10

Mars, like our planet, rotates in the same way - from west to east around its axis.

Interesting fact number 11

Compared to Earth, the gravity on Mars is 2.5 times weaker, which means that a person who weighs 45 kg on Earth will be 17 kg on Mars and can jump 3 times higher.

Interesting fact number 12

During the winter period, about 20% of the air on the planet freezes.

Interesting fact number 13

Mars has 2 small moons - Deimos (from Greek - "panic") and Phobos ("fear"), the first of which rises in the west and sets in the east twice a day, the second - on the other side, and it needs 2, 7 days to get up in the east and sit down in the west.

Interesting fact number 14

The planet Mars was formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Its diameter is 2 times smaller than that of the Earth and is about 4000 miles. Mars is about 10 times lighter than Earth, and most of its surface is covered by oceans. In comparison with the Earth, the land surface of these planets is approximately equal in percentage.

Interesting fact number 15

The first human to see Mars through a telescope was the famous Italian scientist Galileo Galilei. It happened in 1609

Interesting fact number 16

Mars has almost the same period of rotation around the axis of the Earth - 24 hours 37 minutes 22.7 seconds. A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days or 668.6 Martian solar days, called sols.

Interesting fact number 17

The atmosphere of Mars, composed of carbon dioxide, is highly rarefied. The pressure at the surface is 6.1 mbar, which is 160 times less than the Earth's. Due to the large difference in altitude on Mars, the pressure can vary greatly: at the top of Mount Olympus (27 km above the average level) it is equal to 0.5 mbar, and in the Hellas basin (4 km below the average surface level) 8.4 mbar.

Interesting fact number 18

Mars is colored red due to the significant distribution of iron oxides in the soil. The presence of dust in the atmosphere gives the sky of Mars a pinkish tint.

Interesting fact number 19

The hemispheres of the planet Mars are quite different in terms of the nature of the surface. In the southern hemisphere, the surface is 1–2 km above average and is densely cratered. In the north, the surface is below average and there are few craters - relatively smooth valleys occupy the bulk of the territory.

Interesting fact number 20

In ancient times, there were a lot of water resources on Mars, but they then disappeared. Evidence of the "watery past" of Mars are meanders - dried up riverbeds of ancient rivers, as well as some minerals that could have formed only as a result of the action of water.

August 6, 2012 back the Curiosity rover after an eight month journey. The device covered 567 million kilometers on its way to the Red Planet.

During this time, the Curiosity rover made discoveries that indicate the existence of favorable conditions for the life of microbes billions of years ago, did countless works with different instruments, drilled, fired a laser, photographed, sent 468,926 images to Earth.

Images from the Curiosity rover and news from the Red Planet over the past few years.

2. From a distant distance, the surface of Mars looks reddish-red due to the red dust that is contained in the atmosphere. Close up, the color is yellowish-brown with an admixture of golden, brown, reddish-brown and even green, depending on the color of the planet's minerals. In ancient times, people easily distinguished Mars from other planets, and also associated it with war and composed all kinds of legends. The Egyptians called Mars "Har Decher", which meant "red." (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

3. The Curiosity rover is very fond of taking selfies. How does he do it, because there is no one to remove it from the side?

The rover has four color cameras, they all differ in a different set of optics, but only one of them is suitable for. The MAHLI automatic arm has 5 degrees of freedom, which gives the camera a lot of flexibility and lets the camera fly around the Martian rover from all sides. The movement of this hand-camera is controlled by a specialist from the Earth. The main task is to follow a certain sequence of movement of the automatic hand so that the camera can take a sufficient number of shots for the subsequent stitching of the panorama. The scenario for preparing each such selfie is first worked out on Earth on a special test module called Maggie. (Photo by NASA):

4. Martian sunset, April 15, 2015. At noon, the sky of Mars is yellow-orange. The reason for such differences from the color scale of the earth's sky is the properties of the thin, rarefied atmosphere of Mars containing suspended dust. On Mars, Rayleigh scattering of rays (which on Earth is the cause of the blue color of the sky) plays a minor role, its effect is weak, but manifests itself in the form of a blue glow at sunrise and sunset, when light passes through a thicker layer of air. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | Texas A&M Univ via Getty | NASA):

5. Wheels of the rover on September 9, 2012. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Malin Space Science Systems | NASA):

6. And this is a photo on April 18, 2016. It can be seen how the workaholic's “shoe” has worn out. From August 2012 to January last year, the Curiosity rover covered 15.26 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech MSSS | NASA):

7. We continue to watch images of the Curiosity rover. Dune Namib is a dark sand area of dunes to the northwest of Mount Sharp. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

8. Two-thirds of the surface of Mars is occupied by light areas, called continents, about a third - by dark areas called seas. And this is the foot of Mount Sharp.

Sharpe is a Martian mountain located in Gale Crater. The height of the mountain is about 5 kilometers. On Mars, there is also the highest mountain in the solar system - the extinct volcano Olympus, 26 km high. The diameter of Olympus is about 540 km. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

9. Photo from the orbiter, here and the rover is visible. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | Univ. Of Arizona | NASA):

10. How was this unusual Ireson Hill on Mars formed? Its history has become the subject of research. Its shape and two-tone structure make it one of the most unusual hills around which an automated rover passed. It reaches a height of about 5 meters, and its base measures about 15 meters. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA0:

11. This is how the "traces" of the rover on Mars look. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | NASA):

12. The hemispheres of Mars are quite different in the nature of the surface. In the southern hemisphere, the surface is 1–2 km above average and is densely cratered. This part of Mars resembles lunar continents. In the north, most of the surface is below average, with few craters and relatively smooth plains, likely from lava flooding and erosion. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

13. Another masterful selfie. (Photo JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

14. In the foreground, about three kilometers from the rover, is a long ridge teeming with iron oxide. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

15. A look at the path that the rover has made, February 9, 2014. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

16. The hole drilled by the Curiosity rover. This color of the rock beneath the red surface is not immediately apparent. The rover's drill is capable of making holes 1.6 cm in diameter and 5 cm deep in the stone. Samples taken by the manipulator can also be examined with SAM and CheMin instruments located in the front of the rover body. (Photo by JPL-Caltech | MSSS | NASA):

17. Another selfie, the freshest taken on January 23, 2018. (Photo by NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSSS):

On August 7, 2012, Curiosity, a sophisticated 900-kilogram rover equipped with the latest technology, began to operate on the surface of Mars. In the future, Curiosity may become one of the most successful space missions: the scientific equipment on board is designed to study in detail geological history Mars and shed light on the question of life on this still mysterious planet. Despite the fact that the main operation of the device will end after 668 Martian days, in total Curiosity is able to operate for at least 14 years.

Normal Martian landscape by day

Part of the Gale Crater mosaic

Curiosity wheel trail on the sand of Mars

Sand, dust and stone called Burwash. The picture was taken from a distance of 11.5 cm from the stone, the size of the picture is 7.6 by 5.7 cm

Sandy sediment from the slope of which Curiosity took soil samples. On the left, we see a raw image of a dune showing what it looks like on Mars, where the sky is often reddish due to the large amount of dust. On the right, the image has been processed to show what the same area would look like on Earth. The size of the rounded stone above the center of the image is about 20 cm

"Blueberries" are small spherical inclusions in the Martian soil. The size of the balls is about 3 mm, they contain a large amount of red iron ore, which is formed in the presence of water

The picture shows the bottom of the vehicle, all six wheels and the tracks left by them. In the foreground - two pairs of black and white HAZCAM navigation cameras

Curiosity has just climbed Rocknest Dune to take the first samples of the Red Planet's soil. The picture was taken on October 3, 2012, on the 57th day of operation of the device

MAHLI's camera looks at the Curiosity wheel.

Morning on Mars

Dark gray Martian rock. The image was taken with a MAHLI camera from a distance of 27 cm. The image area is 16 by 12 cm, and the resolution is 105 microns per pixel. Despite its impressive clarity, scientists have not been able to resolve the granules or crystals that make up the stone.

The "pyramid" on Mars is a rock called Jake Matijevic. The picture was taken on September 21, 2012.

Exploring the "Pyramid" with close range. Chemical analysis stone showed that it is rich in alkali metals, as well as in halogens - chlorine and bromine. Judging by the spectrum, this stone is a mosaic of individual grains of minerals, including pyroxene, feldspar and olivine. In general, the composition of the stone is very atypical for Martian stones.

Color image of the "pyramid" on Mars. The image has changed the white balance to reveal the differences in the blotches on the stone.

On the 55th day of stay on Mars. The focus of Curiosity is a sandy sediment called Rocknest, from the slope of which the rover took the first soil samples.

Remains of an ancient stream bed on Mars. The fact that water once flowed in this place is evidenced by many pieces of gravel and stone, which have a smooth rounded shape. In addition, the size of some of these stones suggests that they could only have been carried by the flow of water. Rock chipped like a broken sidewalk is of sedimentary origin

Looking back at the path traveled

Evening on Mars. The snapshot was taken on the 49th day of Curiosity's operation.

Martian stone, received from scientists the name Et-Zen (Et-Then). The image was taken by the MAHLI camera (Mars Hand Lens Imager) on October 29, 2012, on the 82nd day of Curiosity's stay on the Red Planet. The rock was photographed from a distance of 40 cm, the image is only 25 cm wide.At-Zen was found near the left front wheel of the device when Curiosity was preparing to take soil samples in the Rocknest site

Rocks on Mars. Mosaic taken by the MAHLI camera on the 76th day of Curiosity's stay on the Mysterious Planet

Orbiters and rovers exploring the Red Planet constantly replenish the collections of researchers and amateurs with numerous photographs - sometimes strange, almost fantastic and completely unexpected for scientists. Let's consider the most interesting points.

03/12/2013, Tue, 02:43, Moscow time

Mars attracts people's attention with its similarity to Earth: a similar mass, approximately equal amount of sunlight, signs of the presence of water, and maybe life. Moreover, Mars is about 100 million years older than Earth, which means that by now intelligent Martians could achieve much more progress than earthlings. It should be noted that we already know a lot about Mars: scientists are almost sure that millions of years ago it was a water-rich planet with a comfortable climate. But there are also enough riddles. Orbiters and rovers send a lot of pictures of the Red Planet, and some of the frames cause a real storm of passion.

Valley of the Pyramids

In 1971, NASA's Viking 1 probe took one of the most famous images of Mars. A photograph of an area called Cydonia reveals a giant stone structure with a face that resembles an Egyptian sphinx. This sensational 1.5-km statue was also accompanied by a "scattering" of rocks similar to the Egyptian pyramids.

A photograph of an area called Cydonia reveals a giant stone structure with a face that resembles an Egyptian Sphinx.

The publication of the images has spawned an avalanche of articles, books, films and video games on the topic of hardworking Martians, who took the trouble to build a giant human face to impress future generations of earthlings. There were many theories: from the "stargate" between the Martian and Egyptian pyramids to a library of incredible knowledge left to us by the alien forefathers.

Because of all this hype, photographing the "Martian Valley of the Pyramids" (and Cydonia was never called otherwise) has become one of the main tasks for NASA's new Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) probe. He arrived at Mars in September 1997 - after 18 years of heated debate, and the first coveted picture was taken only on April 5, 1998. The MGS camera was 10 times more sensitive than the Viking camera, and thousands of Internet users were eagerly waiting for NASA to release the coveted image to the public.

Later photographs from a different angle showed that the "face of the sphinx" is in fact an ordinary rock

As a result, no one was satisfied with the resulting picture: no face was visible on it, only an ordinary rock. However, the contactees continued to believe, especially since MGS photographed the valley through thin layer clouds, and many details are lost.

The next picture had to wait a long time - it was taken on April 8, 2001 on a cloudless summer day. We even had to change the orientation of the probe for the best possible photo.

This is how the photo story of the "greatest mystery of Mars" looks like,

Alas, now everyone could see that the "face of the sphinx" is actually an ordinary rock, and the sensational photo of "Viking-1" is just a play of light, shadow, imperfect technology and human imagination. So the story of the "greatest mystery of Mars" ended, but it was after it that thousands of enthusiasts around the world began to peer at the pictures of the Red Planet and find unusual things on them.

Big Foot

In November 2007, the rover Spirit at the base of a plateau called Home Plate took a picture that caused a storm of discussion. The panoramic camera of the rover photographed not some "overwhelming" artifact, like the ruins of a million-year-old metropolis or wreckage spaceship, but a real living alien. Thanks to the attentiveness of Internet users in the lower left corner, almost at the very edge of the picture, something was discovered that very much resembles the figure of a Bigfoot confidently walking across the desert of the Red Planet. Worst of all, in the official annotation to the image on the NASA website, nothing was written about this undoubtedly remarkable object. Fans of conspiracy theory immediately saw this as a sign and felt that inattentive censors had missed the photo of a representative of an extraterrestrial race, the existence of which the US government has long known.

Thanks to the attentiveness of Internet users in the lower left corner, almost at the very edge of the picture, something was discovered that very much resembles the figure of a Bigfoot confidently walking across the desert of the Red Planet

The figure in the photo is indeed very similar to a humanoid, however, there are some nuances that put an end to the bewitching version of the first contact with extraterrestrial life. First of all, the Spirit rover does not have the perfect high-resolution color camera like Curiosity does. Therefore, color panoramic images are "assembled" from several photographs taken with a black-and-white camera through a couple of filters at intervals of several minutes. Only this fact leads us to the conclusion that the humanoid would have to freeze for 10 minutes in its dynamic pose in order to turn out well in the final panoramic image, consisting of a total of 154 individual photographs. In addition, an attentive observer will notice that the alien figure is located on a piece of rock that is a short distance from the rover. More specifically, the alien was less than five meters from Spirit.

NASA scientists are sure that another Martian sensation was just a play of light and shadow on a bizarrely weathered rock

This means that the growth of a Martian is not at all impressive - only 6 cm.However, enthusiasts of searching for extraterrestrial civilizations can find factual material in this too: for example, the small growth of aliens could explain how they manage to hide civilization from our cameras. However, NASA scientists have a different opinion and are sure that another Martian sensation was just a play of light and shadow on a bizarrely weathered rock.

Under the shade of the Martian forest

The orbital probe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken many pictures, which show objects that look like an unusual, attractive unearthly beauty of vegetation. The photo shows long dark trees, shining with a metallic sheen, incomprehensible "hair", similar to thickets of bushes, dark fluffy spots of "moss".

The orbital probe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took many pictures, which show objects that look like unusual, attractive unearthly beauty of vegetation

Scientists are unequivocally sure that this is not any vegetation, but mainly geological formations caused by the changing seasons. In winter, frozen carbon dioxide snows in some regions of Mars. In the spring, it melts very quickly, turns into a gaseous state, and jets of gas throw out the lower darker layers of the soil onto the surface.

But be that as it may - the picture is really amazingly beautiful and worthy of the artist's brush no less than living earthly forests.

Airship hangar

In July 2010, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an unusual object that looked like a huge hangar. It is located at the coordinates 13 ° 19 "50.55" N; 115 ° 35 "10.15" W next to a perfectly circular crater reminiscent of the sandy dish of the Arecibo radio telescope.

In the glare of sunlight, an oblong object hundreds of meters long really resembles an artificial polished structure.

In the glare of sunlight, an oblong object hundreds of meters long really resembles an artificial polished structure. However, the higher resolution black and white image shows that the "hangar" looks more like an unusual sand dune or rock covered with sand. Nevertheless, those who wish can see in it both the geometrically correct hull of the spacecraft and a large boathouse with a black shadow from the entrance.

NASA's Curiosity rover has been operating on Mars for almost six months and has photographed several mysterious objects, the origin of which has attracted considerable interest from non-specialists.

Along with such "trifles" as a stone of an almost ideal pyramidal shape and a scattering of incomprehensible stone "peas", two pictures stand out, which show objects that look like pieces of plastic.

NASA's Curiosity rover has been working on Mars for almost six months and has photographed several mysterious objects, the origin of which has aroused considerable interest from non-specialists.

On the 61st day of its mission, October 7, 2012, Curiosity was taking routine images of the Martian surface and came across a bright object that looked like a piece of polyethylene about 1 cm in length. The rover was delayed for a day so that it could take a detailed photograph of an incomprehensible little thing.

After studying the images, scientists came to the conclusion that this is really a piece of plastic, but this is not an artifact of an extinct civilization, but part of the rover itself.

A tiny object that looks like a flattened pearl was originally sprinkled with Martian sand

However, on December 19, in the Rocknest area, the rover was sifting through the Martian sand and again came across an incomprehensible shiny object. At the same time, a tiny object, similar to a flattened pearl, was originally sprinkled with Martian sand, that is, it definitely did not fall off the rover. NASA experts have confirmed that this is not part of the rover, but, most likely, a fragment of a larger rock located under the sand at a greater depth. Considering that traces of a long-dry stream were found near the find, the appearance of a shiny pebble does not seem like something fantastic, but many saw it as an artificial object or plant.

Monolith on Phobos

Not only Mars was "marked" by mysterious objects. On its satellite - Phobos - there is also something to see. This is an object informally called "monolith". This object was photographed in August 1998 by the Mars Global Surveyor and named for its resemblance to an alien artifact from the science fiction movie A Space Odyssey 2001. We are talking about a vertically standing triangular prism 85 m high with "suspiciously" correct proportions and sharp edges. This unusual shape of the rock attracted the attention of the press and began to talk about the monolith. Interestingly, they still talk about it, although NASA said it was an ordinary rock - just an unusual shape. At the same time, Mars also has a similar monolith (-7.2S; 267.4E), which NASA experts call an "ordinary boulder" that does not have a clear rectangular shape only because of the pixelation of the image. As you know, in digital photos, pixels are square, which makes the edges of all objects shot at low resolution, straight. In addition, on Earth there is a mass of rocks and stones of almost regular rectangular shape. It should also be noted that in the same photo of Phobos there are many similar rocks and ledges, although, of course, no one has such a regular triangular shape.

Both Mars and Phobos have a "monolith"

Nevertheless, astronaut Buzz Aldrin added fuel to the fire, who said: "There is a strange object of very unusual shape on Phobos. It is imperative to visit the satellites of Mars." From the point of view of searching for traces of a developed dead civilization, this looks logical - Mars, apparently, has undergone a large-scale catastrophe, and geological processes for millions should have erased any noticeable traces of intelligent life from the surface of the Red Planet. On the other hand, some artifacts could have survived on the airless dead Phobos.

One way or another, the monoliths on Phobos and Mars will keep their mysteries for now, since they are not planned to be thoroughly investigated in the coming years. In 2007, the Canadian Space Agency announced plans for a PRIME mission: near the monolith on Phobos, it was supposed to land unmanned vehicle but the date for this mission has not yet been set. Perhaps the secret of the monolith could be revealed by the Russian automatic interplanetary station "Phobos-Grunt", but its launch in November 2011 ended in disaster.

Is the answer close?

According to experts in the field of psychology, the overwhelming majority of alien "artifacts" are a consequence of a special property of our brain, which "wants" to see familiar objects where they are not. Because of this, we see someone's face in a drawing of clouds, a human figure in a plexus of trees, etc. The same applies to photographs of other planets: in a pile of stones we see the ruins of a city, in unusual stones and rocks - skeletons, buildings, skulls, and so on. For example, a photo taken in November 1999 by the Mars Global Surveyor shows the Promethei Rupes region with a bright spot that resembles a giant Valentine's Day. This "heart" has almost perfectly smooth contours, as if it were drawn by a talented artist. However, hardly anyone believes that many years ago the Martians drew a 255-meter postcard "from Mars to earthlings with love."

This "heart" has almost perfectly smooth contours, as if it were drawn by a talented artist

Nonetheless, people will continue to make new telescopes, launch new probes, peer into space photographs and see exciting signs of life and alien intelligence in them. This is in our nature, and this, perhaps, is the meaning of our existence.

Mikhail Levkevich

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