Martian dawn. Photo taken August 13, 1977 by the Viking 1 Lander. Pruned

The Boston Globe’s incredible gallery of Martian landscapes, as photographed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

And also: CGR posted a wonderful picture of the Martian night sky, in which both the Earth and Jupiter (and its moons!) can be clearly seen.

A beautiful Missions to Mars infographic, related to this report that argues for a manned mission. I personally think space exploration is probably better left off to robots for the time being, as the resources needed to make a mission possible for us nimble humans are better spent on other stuff down here on Earth. On the other hand: I loved the Mars Trilogy, so astronauts on Mars would be infinitely cool. CGR