The Red Planet Has a Purple Side

Oxidized iron dominates the Martian color palette, giving the planet its nickname "the Red Planet." New images reveal a south pole region with swirls of pink, purple, and red, including the icy crag Thyles Rupes. The region's varied colors come from different sources, with volcanoes contributing both the darker material and the minerals like olivine and pyroxene. The pale bluish areas are covered in frozen carbon dioxide, which persists even in springtime. The overall blueberry/purple hue is from a combination of dust and frost, but the region changes throughout the day due to varying conditions.

• Thyles Rupes, extending for hundreds of kilometers, formed when the planet's interior was cooling, causing some parts of the crust to thrust upward.
• The region's topography shows how tall Thyles Rupes is, more than 1 km high.
• The image shows Thyles Rupes from directly above, sitting above some craters and under others, with older ones being under it.
• The image also shows barchanoid ridges, arc-shaped dunes common on Earth's sandy deserts.
• The image was captured by orbiters like Mars Express, providing insights into Mars' surface and how different rocky planets can vary.

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