Pristine Beauty: The Many Faces of Mars

May 12, 2017
"Mars: The Pristine Beauty of the Red Planet," by Alfred McEwen, Candice Hansen-Koharcheck and Ari Espinoza, is published by the University of Arizona Press and available at bookstores and online for $75.
This impact occurred between December 2003 and November 2005. The main crater itself is only 23 meters across, but the impact event created markings spreading more than a kilometer outward. The interior stands out as blue because the impact excavated a ca
The floor of Candor Chasma in central Valles Marineris presents an amazing scene: giant jumbled blocks of bright layered sediments, accentuated by dark-toned sand in the low areas between blocks. This could be a giant landslide deposit, which might have f
This crater is about 130 meters wide — one of the largest found in this young terrain on the North Polar ice cap — with a deep pit on the left side, probably where ice has been partially removed by the wind or sublimation. The streak to the left of the cr
One terrain on Mars wins the weirdness award: the South Polar residual cap. The residual cap is composed of carbon dioxide ice over layers of water ice. The carbon dioxide ice sublimates rapidly in the summer from these dark slopes, causing slope retrea
The process of sublimation is quite dynamic on Mars, creating a zoo of spots, streaks and haloes. An informally named area called “Inca City” provides a snapshot of spectacular natural phenomena in early spring; this area looks very different at other tim
These layers, on the floor of an eroding impact crater, are extremely thin. Below the ridges are additional dark-toned deposits, exhibiting a variety of textures, some owing to the transport of material. The light-toned ridges are capped by thin dark-tone
The Descent of the Phoenix Lander : A dramatic oblique view catches the Phoenix lander descending on its parachute, the first time that one spacecraft has photographed another before it has landed. Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into Heimd
The Descent of Curiosity: NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, was spotted by HiRISE as it descended to the surface on Aug. 5, 2012. Curiosity and its parachute are on the left, while above is a close-up, stretched to avoid saturation. The rover is
Along the plateau to the southwest of Melas Chasma, layers with many colors and variable brightness delight the eye. The strata may have formed by deposition from the wind, volcanism or water activity. Dunes that eroded into strange shapes cover some of t
Giant Valles Marineris is up to 10 kilometers deep; this is just a small part near the bottom of a giant slope connecting the upper plains to the canyon floor. The varied colors indicate a mix of altered and unaltered rocks in this deep exposure of ancien

"There is a vast and cool silence on Mars, sometimes broken by the sound of a boulder perched at the rim of an ancient impact crater — formed long before the Code of Hammurabi or Plato's tale of Atlantis — giving way to inexorable gravity, finally rolling down a slope before coming to a stop and continuing its vigil. Somewhere at the Martian poles, warmed by weak but still potent heat from the sun, ice cracks on a cliff, sending material plummeting below, raising dust clouds that linger and slowly disappear. The wind works relentlessly, yes, its echo everywhere across sculpted rocks, but mostly, this is a quiet world."

So begins what the authors of a new book featuring stunning images from the UA-led HiRISE camera project call an armchair exploration of the Red Planet. Weighing in at nearly eight pounds, "Mars: The Pristine Beauty of the Red Planet" features close to 200 carefully selected photographs taken by the University of Arizona-led HiRISE camera, which has been orbiting Mars on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006. 

The result is a visual journey across the surface of Mars taken by what the HiRISE team calls "the people's camera at Mars." With artistic glimpses at actively eroding slopes, impact craters, strange polar landscapes, avalanches and even spectacular pictures capturing the Phoenix Lander and the Curiosity Rover descending on their parachutes, the reader gets to see what researchers are seeing.

Arranged into chapters that guide the reader/viewer from familiar features such as sand dunes to more alien landscapes one cannot glimpse on our own planet, the photos and accompanying captions amount to 425 pages compiled by UA HiRISE scientists. Here is a selection of photos highlighting the alien beauty of the Red Planet.