• NASA/JPL-Caltech
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    We think of Mars as red, but of course other colors are well represented. In this full view of Mars, one of the planet's ice caps is visible in white at the bottom of the picture.

    Click through for amazing images of Mars.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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    See the tiny heart in the upper center of this picture? In May 2010, a camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this shot of the half-mile-long, heart-shaped feature. It resides in Mars' Arabia Terra region. At the tip of the heart is a small impact crater. When the crater was formed, dark surface material was blown away, exposing brighter material beneath. As the light material fell down the slope, it formed the heart shape.

  • Stocktrek Images
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    The giant gash across Mars' surface here is Valles Marineris, a system of canyons that runs along the planet's equator. At just under 2,500 miles long, it's one of the largest canyon systems in the solar system.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
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    West of Valles Marineris is the region Noctis Labyrinthus, which is made up of yet more valleys and canyons. This view combines images taken from April 2003 to September 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. 

  • NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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    The Red Planet looks almost spooky here, doesn't it? Taken in June 2001 from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the image reveals white-water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms. 

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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    Earth isn't the only planet with polar ice caps. Mars also has two permanent polar ice caps made mostly of water ice. This image, from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, depicts the planet's northern polar ice cap, which is about 620 miles wide during the northern Mars summer.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
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    It's hard to see, but NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is visible perched on the southeast rim of the 955-foot-wide Santa Maria crater. The rover is the dark speck at about the 4 o'clock position on the crater's rim.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
    8 of 12

    Most craters are depressions, but not this one. This 800-foot-wide crater in the Arabia Terra region is raised. It filled with sediment and remained intact as erosion stripped away its surroundings. It was captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in January 2010.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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    Talk about texture. This image reveals sedimentary rock layers in a crater in the Arabia Terra region. Each layer is approximately 33 feet thick. The shot was taken in February 2007 by a camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

  • NASA/JPL
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    Mars looks like a perfect little marble here, doesn't it? This image also shows water-ice clouds and polar ice.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
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    Mars has its own kind of ravines, which you can see in this image of Hellas impact basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system. The streaks are actually channels up to 33 feet wide. The image came from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in January 2011.

  • NASA/JPL-Caltech
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    Next: This Just in from Space

    This colorful image shows Victoria Crater, a roughly 2,400-foot-wide impact crater at Meridiani Planum, a plain just south of the planet's equator. It was taken in October 2006 from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.