Fascinated by the outlandish? These images of the planet Mars are bound to have you hooked!

The base of Mars' Mount Sharp.

A view of Ophir Chasma on the northern portion of the vast Mars canyon system, Vallles Marineris, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Nili Patera, one of the most active dune fields on the planet Mars.

Rough spherical features in an area called Yellowknife Bay. These features are interpreted as concretions, implying they formed in water that percolated through pores in the sediment. Spherical concretions have previously been discovered in other rocks on Mars.

Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from Orbiter taken June 2013.

The surface of the planet Mars inside Gale Crater.

A rock outcrop called Link pops out from a Martian surface. Rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches in size are in a matrix of white material. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth.

Portions of the Martian surface showing many channels from 1 meter to 10 meters wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin.

Fascinated by the outlandish? These images of the planet Mars are bound to have you hooked!The base of Mars' Mount Sharp.

REUTERSA view of Ophir Chasma on the northern portion of the vast Mars canyon system, Vallles Marineris, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Nili Patera, one of the most active dune fields on the planet Mars.

Rough spherical features in an area called Yellowknife Bay. These features are interpreted as concretions, implying they formed in water that percolated through pores in the sediment. Spherical concretions have previously been discovered in other rocks on Mars.

Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from Orbiter taken June 2013.

The surface of the planet Mars inside Gale Crater.

A rock outcrop called Link pops out from a Martian surface. Rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple inches in size are in a matrix of white material. The outcrop characteristics are consistent with a sedimentary conglomerate, or a rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Scientists enhanced the color in this version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth.

Portions of the Martian surface showing many channels from 1 meter to 10 meters wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin.

Part of the wall of Gale Crater. Here, a network of valleys believed to have formed by water erosion enters Gale Crater from the outside.

The northern-most sand dunes are seen as they begin to emerge from their winter cover of seasonal carbon dioxide (dry) ice.

A location on Mars associated with the best-selling novel and Hollywood movie, "The Martian" This area is in the Acidalia Planitia region and in the novel and the movie, it is the landing site of a crewed mission named Ares 3.

An impact crater on Mars is seen in an image taken by Orbiter.

A view of the Noctis Labyrinthus region of Mars, perched high on the Tharsis rise in the upper reaches of the Valles Marineris canyon system.

Inclined layering known as cross-bedding in an outcrop called Shaler on a scale of a few tenths of a meter.

Two trenches dug by Phoenix's Robotic Arm.

Mars' Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum.

An iron meteorite on Mars in an image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

This image, cropped from a larger panoramic image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit panoramic camera shows the rover's destination toward the hills nicknamed the Columbia Hills.

A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

A high-resolution image, using data from the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera's near-infrared, blue and green filters combined to create an approximate true-color image, of a puzzling rock outcropping to the northwest of the rover.

Author: REUTERS

Source: http://www.indiatimes.com