Mars. Photographs from NASA's Archive

Ever since Galileo Galilei’s telescope first glimpsed the Red Planet in 1610, Mars has been a source of endless fascination. Observe the desert world with its polar ice caps, valleys, and volcanoes through the eyes of NASA’s rovers, probes, and orbiters, from the first flyby in 1965 to the present day’s Perseverance rover.

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lt;p>Ever since ancient astronomers gazed up at a distant ruby spark in the night sky and named it for their god of war, Mars has captivated the human imagination as a source of endless speculation and a beacon of hope for its potential habitability. The many mysteries of the fourth planet from the sun are uncovered through six decades of missions and pioneering research at NASA-photographs have revealed a rocky world, visually so much like our own, that likely supported ancient life.See the earliest close-up images of Mars taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965, the first ever captured of another planet, along with historical illustrations, before scientific advancement matched our curiosity. Science and art collide as NASA's later missions capture ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, dust devils, vast canyons, and formidable volcanoes in an endlessly varied landscape. As they traverse Mars' scarred surface, NASA's rovers have operated as mechanical extensions of humankind for the past 25 years-until we can get there ourselves-marveling at mountain ranges and blue sunsets, drilling holes, and searching for traces of water.Through hundreds of cutting-edge photographs from NASA and JPL's extensive archives, we join NASA scientists in the ongoing quest to better understand Mars. Essays from some of the masterminds behind NASA's missions to the Martian planet James L. Green and Robert Manning, curator Margaret Weitekamp, poet Nikki Giovanni, and more illuminate the latest electrifying research on the red planet and its enduring hold on our culture.