Mars might not look like much from Earth, but close up, it's a perfect spectacle of natural beauty.
Since 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has been orbiting Mars snapping pictures of the surface with its HiRISE camera.
Here is a collection of some of the most incredible images the camera has taken over the years.
The HiRISE images shown here have false coloring that highlights distinct Martian features, like sand dunes shown in the image to the right. The false-coloring helps scientists see how the grooves and troughs of these features change over time.
During the summer on Mars' north pole, all of the surface ice is gone revealing the cracked surface underneath. The cracks are likely from underground ice expanding and contracting with the seasons.
Dark and light streaks crawl up a ridge in this picture of the Acheron Fossae region. Scientists debate over how the different-colored streaks formed, but they agree that the darker streaks are younger that turn into the lighter streaks over time.
Believe it or not Mars has dust devils and this mesmerizing picture shows the tracks that they trace in the sandy Martian surface.
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