NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Images April 4, 2012

– Sedimentary Deposits on the Floor of Ritchey Crater http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025797_1515

Ritchey Crater exposes some of the most colorful rock outcrops on Mars in its central peak.

– Layers in a Crater Wall http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026061_1435

The sun is beautifully illuminating a series of layers exposed in the crater wall which have a variety of different colors.

– A Monster Dust Devil Stalks the Martian Landscape http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026394_2160

A dust devil the size of a terrestrial tornado towers above the Martian surface in this late springtime afternoon image of Amazonis Planitia.

– Of Elephants and Floods of Lava http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_026461_2080

This image covers the margin of a lava flow in Elysium Planitia, the youngest flood-lava province on Mars, and highlights terrain that resembles an elephant.

All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument.