6 Best images of the Red Planet 'Mars' shared by NASA

Two dramatically different faces of the Red Planet appear showing how a global dust storm engulfed Mars with the onset of spring in the Martian southern hemisphere.

The reason Mars looks reddish is due to oxidization – or rusting – of iron in the rocks, regolith (Martian “soil”), and dust of the red planet.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a cameo appearance of the tiny moon Phobos on its trek around the Red Planet.

This image at the South Pole of Mars, shows a carbon dioxide ice cap covering the region and as the sun returns in the spring, “spiders” begin to emerge from the landscape.

Mars is home to the tallest volcanic mountain Olympus Mons in the solar system. Rising 22 kilometers high, Olympus Mons is nearly three times taller than Mount Everest.

In this image of a dune field on Mars in a large crater near Mawrth Vallis, some of the dunes appear to be in a V-shaped formation.