21 Unbelievable Photographs of Mars
Feb 2, 2010 Photography
Mars is the fourth planet from our Sun in the Solar System. Out of the various planets and moons in our Solar System, Mars perhaps bears the most similarity to Earth, featuring an atmosphere, polar ice caps, and remnants of tectonic activity on the planet’s surface. Mars has fascinated both astronomers and the general public for years, and has been the subject of countless movies and fiction works. Currently, several nations in the world are planning to send missions to Mars for exploration, and NASA’s Spirit Rover recently ended a 6 year exploration of the surface after becoming trapped in sand.
This post will feature 21 unbelievable photographs of Mars, captured by telescope and by space probe. You’ll get to see up close what another planet in our Solar System looks like. Hope you find it interesting!
Tags: Astronomers, Atmosphere, Earth, Mars Exploration, Missions To Mars, Moons In Our Solar System, Movies, Nasa, Photographs, Planet Mars, Planets And Moons, Polar Ice Caps, Remnants, Similarity, Solar Bears, Solar Planets, Space Probe, Spirit Rover, Sun, Telescope
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:42 am
Is this a Mars? I see an ass…
http://www.presidiacreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/28_01_2010_0216004001264698280_nasa.jpg
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
…. yep, pretty cool photo’s of Mars, even the one’s that make you think you are seeing trees up there !! They are an illusion
!!
February 4th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
…. oopps, this wasn’t the collection of Nasa photographs I had just looked at before receiving this share from Brukhar !!
February 5th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Excptional pictures
February 5th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I wish you had descriptions of each photo: where it is, which geological site, etc. Very nice photos!
February 6th, 2010 at 12:41 am
is the blue liquid water??????
February 8th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Third picture, are those plants??? Can’t be, right? What are those?
February 8th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
It’s an illusion, they are sand dunes.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
The third picture is of the tiny hairs inside a human ear, not Mars at all! Most of these pictures are of something else.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Is that first picture actually a photograph? Because it looks more like a rendering done with Terragen.
What is the source of the first image?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
These are lovely, but they’re hardly new images. They keep rehashing the “nothing to see here” photos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgQs8qDX2Ms
Face it, it’s a face. Demand the truth.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
face YOUR face and look in the mirror Babs… maybe you see something there that demands the truth?
February 10th, 2010 at 8:02 am
hey knock it off.this is a private planet
February 10th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Stunning images
February 10th, 2010 at 10:33 am
These don’t seem Mars photos. Most of them look like taken from microscope.
February 10th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
granted most of these pictures do look fake but you can find everyone of these on some site connected to nasa or the mars mission and yes they all do look like they were taken through a microscope cause they were taken through a telescope which is primarily the same.
February 10th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
No water on Mars. I think some of these are false coloured. Would be great if I were proved wrong. The “waves” you see are actually sand dunes. No, these are not pictures of “other things”. They aren’t amoebas or trees or inner ears. Look closely and you’ll see everywhere sand and dunes. Maybe they’re earth sand dunes (I would love to see some proof that these are from Mars, a source or similar), but they are still of sand and geological features.
February 10th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
MARS has a blue atmosphere… Look at the pictures of the rovers on Earth then on MARS, the color scheme is off, there are color templates on the rovers, seen in pictures,
NASA is hiding the fact that there is water on the surface and below the surface of MARS. The Atmosphere is blue which means there is both Oxygen and Nitrogen in the air. You can see the blue atmosphere from any good high quality amateur telescope.
peace.
February 10th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
These pictures are a poor attempt at a wind up.
February 10th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Someone Out There Says:
“NASA is hiding the fact that there is water on the surface and below the surface of MARS.”
Why?
February 10th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
so if global warming heats the earth… then why dont we just heat mars up enough with greenhouse gases until we can live there..
al gore isnt serial.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:29 am
nah whatever …….
February 11th, 2010 at 3:10 am
ummmm, you could at least make up some scales
February 11th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Most of these photos have a brilliant blue hue, would never have expected that as Mars is the ‘red’ planet. Nevertheless they really beautiful!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Are those trees in the 3r picture? I mean, obviously they’re not, but what the hell are those?
February 11th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
It’s an illusion, its just dark streaks on the sand dunes.
February 11th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Yes, all planets with a blue hue are primarily composed of Oxygen and Nitrogen. Just like Neptune.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
The first isn’t real. The rest are, but they’re in false color.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Who says NASA is hiding the fact that there’s water on and under the surface? Its like Mars 101 knowledge that the polar ice caps are made of water. Its like one of the first things you learn in a Planetary Astronomy course.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:27 am
If you look at the 5th from bottom one upside down it looks like a giant alien head holding a finger to its mouth: “don’t tell anyone”!
February 12th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Are all these pictures false colored photgraphs.. they look like that. Too colorful & too bright.. hmm.. ( though I believe they are black and white pics of mars)
February 12th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Remarkable…one of the photos actually looks like trees in the subarctic. next should be the pics from the Huygens probe that landed on the moon of Saturn.
February 12th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
The last photo looks like Lapis mines if ever there such a thing, and Gold seams, if ever there were Martians they crossly over mined and it may’be a sign to us, but na I’m seing things just like in the movies.
February 12th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
This is awesome. the third picture down looks like patches of trees! some of them look like pics of an ocean, crazy.
February 13th, 2010 at 2:26 am
It would have been nice to have explanations as to where on Mars each of these pictures are and the geology of the places too!
Having said that – these are gorgeous shots. “”The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one – but still they …” never mind!
February 13th, 2010 at 2:53 am
They should have a caption of which spacecraft took these and where on Mars they are. I wonder where you can go to find the original source.
February 13th, 2010 at 4:56 am
FANTASTIC!
February 13th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Wow .. Excellent Pictures.
Amazing …!!!
February 13th, 2010 at 9:58 am
The first is a digital painting, the rest are real;
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
February 13th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Awesome pictures. The formation in the 13 picture kind of looks like a dolphin!
So what are those crack in the surface in the 3rd picture?
What a beautiful planet!
February 13th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I always appreciate new information, that being education, information, wisdom, advice.. you name it…but here is something one simply can’t find just every day. Superbly interesting and satisfying for inquisitive minds. Thank you very much, and…”source” of this should be praised.
Maya
February 13th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
that is liquid, you can tell because it’s carving the earth the same way a river would. those do look a lot like trees, probabbly because they are trees. there are earlier pictures of mars that appear to have trees.
February 13th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Rob, it’s not trees according to this site.. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/nasa-orbiter-photographs-phenomenon-that-looks-like-trees-on-the-surface-of-mars/story-e6frf7jo-1225821859032
February 13th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
This is a recently descovered planet, where the exceeding world population will be sent soon, parcels are on sale, make your bids!
How do they hope to make Mars inhabitable? It’s too far from the Sun, without enough sunlight everything would freeze, so whenever they say there’re signs of life on Mars, it’s just a way of preparing us for migration to new planets.;)
February 13th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Absolutely unbelievable. Many look like earth. There must be somebody there.
February 13th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Cool looking but at the same time they look like skin afflictions to me…
February 14th, 2010 at 2:06 am
Wonderful photos! Mars is an amazing planet. Go to http://www.humanstomars.org/. Watch the video and sign the petition to President Obama to make every effort to send explorers to Mars!!
And while you are at it, join the Mars Society!
February 14th, 2010 at 2:23 am
P.S. The website for the Mars Society is http://www.marssociety.org
February 14th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Przepraszam za spam, ale moze kogos to zainteresuje.
Jest taka masowa gra przegladarkowa, w ktorej symulowany jest swiat (jest tez Polska), polityka, wojna, gospodarka, itd. Jak to w realu mielismy najazd Niemcow i i Polska stracila niepodleglosc. Teraz znowu jest wojna ze szwabami, wiec jak ktos jest zainteresowany, to prosze o pomoc.
http://register-erepublik.tk
February 14th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
ha!thats a thing!
February 14th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
eRepublik to gra łącząca aspekty polityczne, militarne oraz gospodarcze. eRepublik ma światowy zasięg, zarejestrowanych jest prawie 400 tysięcy graczy, z czego 65 tysięcy to POLACY (najliczniejsza nacja)!
Polska jest w tej chwili wplątana w liczne walki i potrzebujemy jak największego napływu nowych graczy, którzy pozwolą nam stworzyć potęgę na skalę światową. Nasz najważniejszy cel – aneksja Niemiec został wykonany!
Chcesz walczyć przeciw innym krajom i w kolejnych powstaniach, które wybuchają w podbitych regionach?
Od niedawna jest także język polski, jako jeden z możliwych do wyboru w grze, co na pewno spodoba się wielu nieanglojęzycznym graczom!
Pomóż Polsce! Dołącz już dziś!
http://pomoz-polsce.tk/
P.S. Najlepiej używać skrzynek e-mail na serwerach yahoo i gmail
February 14th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
OMG, amazing photos. For a sec I thought they’re a bit Photoshop-ed but then again, it’s another planet
February 14th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
If they were trees then where are their shadows? This is a govt conspiracy.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:51 am
The blue colorization is added after the images are taken it helps to show up detail especially since most telescopes don’t work the same way as say a camera they don’t take snapshots in exactly the same way a lot of deep field images and nebula photos have coloring on them but yea they are nice pics so who wants to move out there? or at least start a life in space?
February 15th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Great photos. Thanks for posting them.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Great Pics. I hope i live to see the day we have landed people on mars.
February 15th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
lawl, call me Barack Obama if those are pictures of the Mars >.>
February 15th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
even if the first one is a digital image, im pretty sure the real thing wouldnt be any less stunning so im fine with it.
February 16th, 2010 at 1:54 am
this is fake dude..even though this are good picts i have more orignal picts of Mars..just see my website
“http://www.aamjanta.org”
February 16th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Well, I must say I had no idea that Mars could have such beautiful panoramas!
The colors are excellent, 4 I expected various hues of orange and rust! And so thank you for a nice change from that which I expected. Now, a question: Are these pics of small out of the way places upon the planet, or are there truly large areas with this beauty on Mars?
February 17th, 2010 at 5:22 am
This is great…I wonder if there is any possibility of a life form in there?
February 17th, 2010 at 7:19 am
These are literally out of this world pictures. Extraordinary colours, if they are true to life of course! What breathtaking beauty everywhere. I would like to go their even if it meant taking my last dying breath of poisonous air just to see it.
Are all hoax stories for real or is NASA always telling us the truth, who knows? I am betting that if there is verifiable drinking water and a chance of sustained life, I am sure some human somewhere on this planet will be thinking of colonising it soon. Look at the polar areas here as an example of something protected that then can become devoured by development. Nothing is safe!
If there is such a thing as Martian lifeforms, I would be getting prepared for the alien invasion.
Those damned dirty earthlings!
February 17th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
real or not, who cares, fantastic work – thanks for sharing
February 17th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
These pictures (plus another 14) were posted larger and clearer on Boston.com’s Big Picture blog about 3 months ago:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/martian_landscapes.html
February 17th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
It is amazing what the human ability to conjecture and imagine will create in the visual mind. These are nicely “cropped” pictures, enhanced with color. The rovers paint a more realistic picture of Mars…
more Moon like (lifeless).
February 17th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
My teacher taught me that Mars is a planet that appears red…….I wonder why most photographs of Mars appear… Blue….White….Grey…Maybe the telescope was colour blind….!
February 17th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Various reasons…atmosphere, telescope, infrared.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
The blue one looks like a dolphin, the 13th picture.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
with a skull above it?
February 18th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
daaaa….daaaaa…da da.dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum
February 19th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Ohh!! beautifull..!! I’m never seen this picture before,thanks so much !
February 19th, 2010 at 9:29 am
wonderful land…!
February 19th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
These are all images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (except for the first one which looks like an artist rendering). They are hi-res photos of actual Martian landscapes taken from over a hundred miles above the planet, but they are not in true-color as your eye would see it because the planetary scientists use the color variations to help see texture differences better in the surface. Check out this one too: http://lightsinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/southern-dunes/
But these are for real, and are very detailed and very beautiful!
HiRISE site: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
February 19th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
so mars is not only red after all
February 19th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Without descriptions of each photo this page was waste of time…
February 19th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Whatever else might be said about these photos, the first one isn’t a photo. It’s an exceptional painting, which you may find featured on SPACE.com. (The subject is Olympus Mons.) Sorry if someone spotted this before now, but the list of comments is rather long and my time to spare rather short!
February 20th, 2010 at 4:39 am
Really fantastic
February 20th, 2010 at 10:12 am
First pic is Olympus Mons an extinct volcano.
February 20th, 2010 at 10:14 am
First Pic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_mons
February 20th, 2010 at 10:56 am
that is not mars i object it did not say were and how they got the pictures from there are no NASA discription on it or another space company on its fake pictures of mars. any ways there are not any discribation on were or how or were the pictures came from sorry if some one spotted this before me.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Someone posted:
“The third picture is of the tiny hairs inside a human ear, not Mars at all!”
If this is true, then the whole collection is phoney !
February 20th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
stunning.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Great! I like this photo!I borrowed her for photos for me ultimaul article is perfectly matched. Do an excellent job!
http://come4me-radio.net/valentine-s-day-celei-al-carei-suflet-sunt.html
February 20th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
I had just posted two new paintings and someone sent me this link.. because my paintings are of a space nebule…I enjoyed looking at your pictures:)
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
For me, almost every photo hides parts of the body of woman. Amazing.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
i like what i saw but is it real now a days anyone can do wonders with pictures
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Mars seems like an incredible place.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Earth 2100. Unless we kill ourselves off by then.
February 24th, 2010 at 4:53 am
yeah its really unbelievable to know is it real or not?? but if its real its truly amazing and gods gift||
February 24th, 2010 at 10:46 am
They are all REAL. Trust me. See my previous comment with links.
(But the first one is artwork. Still…very nice to look at.)
Our solar system has lots of amazing places! And that’s only the beginning!
March 7th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
is the blue water??? OMG as far as I know, all of them are real mars pictures except for the first one.
The thing about the color is that the rovers don’t carry regular cameras on board, they take black and white pictures so scientists add colour later to make them more real. Sometimes they add some really weird colours so they can better appreciate differences in the surface, depressions, high lands, etc There is a very colourful picture of the moon out there, along with one of mercury in blue and yellow!!!
March 12th, 2010 at 2:01 am
personally, i didn’t see much in the way of anything real, but a few pictures. i would like to ask however, where would someone such as yourself get “pictures” like these? Not saying that the images aren’t nice, but how did you come up on these without “help”? i could go into why i think this but doing so would cause you and everyone else not to to have an attention span of pure boredom. but think about logic first. the planet itself is red, how did it get its color without water. its covered in rust, and i find it kind of hard to believe those pictures are real or semi real. i don’t wish to put anyone down on these photos but really why would pictures characterize this planet? when its not even the correct color or for that mater a lot of them are possible just to get a website started (to get google to notice). this being said I’m sorry if i might sound a little outta context but, really this isn’t a fantasy world and we should be looking at pictures not whats comes out of someones fantasy land.
March 12th, 2010 at 2:30 am
actually tragedy has a point those pictures arent real. because mars isnt that color and plus why would anyone “color” something like that to make it seem better? thats like a person walking up to a perfectly good person and ask what they would change about themself physically? when in reality they have no birth defects and nothing wrong with their mental state. would u trip on a person being blue? and to make them better colored u change them to white black brown etc? its wrong and if u actually want to see pictures go to: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100126-mars-rover-spirit-nasa-stuck/ u will see the real color and see how it got stuck??? lol
March 14th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Photoshoped
March 16th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Ok, i think i will save this for thenext time I’ll have to argue with Frank (friend of mine) about it! I wasn’t wrong
March 16th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Without getting involved in a convoluted Derek Zoolander-type argument over whether these are “real” or not, I’ll just invite anyone who’s confused about these images to visit NASA/JPL’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter website at http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/. It has all these images and lots more.
The coloration is used to differentiate surface material textures, so planetary scientists at the University of Arizona can study Mars’ geology easier. If the photos were all shades of red and orange it would be harder for them to tell what they were looking at.
Visible light is just one limited part of the spectrum. Many space photos are actually taken in ultraviolet and infrared light, invisible to our eyes but they reveal things we can’t see otherwise. It’s common for space images to not be “natural” color. As light-gathering instruments, our eyes are ok but very limited.