Can't Swing a Visit to Mars? Check Out the Next Best Thing

Mars might be known as the red planet, but it turns out it has some seriously stunning shades of blue, yellow and green too.

As we wrote about earlier this week, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured more than 13,000 images of the planet closest to Earth using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the most powerful camera on any NASA spacecraft. Wired has assembled the most amazing shots on their site, so be sure to click here to view them all.

Simply viewing high-res pics of Mars is pretty cool. But you know what's even cooler? NASA has launched a Web site that allows you to scan Mars' surface and make suggestions on what the camera shoots next.

But before you do, please be sure to thoroughly scan the jaw-dropping images this super camera has already collected, some of which look like they could be framed and double as modern art. Highlights include:

A gorgeous purpleish-blue dune field on the floor of a crater made by an asteroid impact.A stunningly clear shot of the Victoria Crater, which includes tracks made by NASA’s Opportunity rover when it dropped in for a visit.An intriguing carbon dioxide ice cap found on the planet's South Pole, featured divots formed by the ice vaporizing. Wired says of the shot, "Scientists think that as the ice cap melts from the bottom up, the carbon dioxide turns directly into gas. It flows beneath the ice to openings, eroding the ground below into a spiderlike network of troughs. The flowing gas also carries dust that escapes with it and settles into fan-shaped deposits on top of the ice." In other words, awesome!

And don't forget: Once you have been thoroughly inspired, be sure to check out NASA's HiRISE Web site — in conjunction with the University of Arizona — and suggest some amazing photo ideas of your own.

Who knows, maybe your suggestion will help discover the very first Martian. Wouldn't that be cool.

Photo courtesy of NASA via Wikimedia Commons