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Frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms above a vivid rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope. This image was captured by the Hubble telescope.

Professor Buck Sharpton, president's professor of remote sensing and an image of the terrain of Mars.

Robbie Herrick (center), a research associate professor with the Geophysical Institute, meets with graduate students enrolled in the planetary science program.

Sharon Pitiss, a graduate student pursuing a master's degree in geology, studies satellite images.

Late in June 2001, as the Mars southern winter transitioned to spring, dust storm activity began to pick up as cold air from the south polar cap moved northward toward the warmer air at the martian equator. This image was taken by one of the wide angle cameras on the Mars Orbiter Camera system onboard the Mars Global Surveyor.

Fred Calef, a Ph.D. candidate in geology, takes a break in his office. Calef has been with the planetary sciences program since 2001.

Scientists working with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit decided to examine this rock, dubbed Wishstone. Spirit used its rock abrasion tool first to scour a patch of the rock's surface with a wire brush, then to grind away the surface to reveal interior material. Spirit used its panoramic camera during the rover's 342nd day on Mars to take the three individual images that were combined to produce this false-color view emphasizing the freshly ground dust around the hole cut by the rock abrasion tool.

Roman Krochuk, a Ph.D. candidate in geology and a member of the planetary sciences group, relaxes near one of the microscopes in the planetary sciences lab. Krochuk uses the microscope to examine rocks from meteorite impact craters.