Red Planet Mars Surface Coloring Page: Free PDF Sheet

Mars: The Rusty, Rocky World Next Door

Rust That Colors an Entire Planet

Mars earned its nickname the Red Planet because iron minerals in its surface dust have oxidized over billions of years, essentially rusting the way an old iron nail rusts on Earth, coating the ground in a fine reddish-orange powder. That same iron-rich dust occasionally whips up into massive planet-wide dust storms that can last for weeks and completely hide the surface from orbiting spacecraft.

Valles Marineris: A Canyon Bigger Than Any on Earth

The winding canyon system Valles Marineris stretches roughly 2,500 miles across the Martian surface, more than ten times longer than Earth's Grand Canyon and deep enough in places to swallow Mount Everest with room to spare. Scientists believe it formed as the Martian crust stretched and cracked apart billions of years ago, rather than being carved slowly by flowing water the way most Earth canyons form.

Olympus Mons: The Solar System's Tallest Volcano

Mars is home to Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system, standing roughly three times taller than Mount Everest and wide enough to cover the entire state of Arizona. Scientists believe it grew so enormous partly because Mars has no shifting tectonic plates like Earth, allowing lava to keep piling up in the same spot for hundreds of millions of years instead of spreading across many separate volcanoes.

A Thin, Cold, Mostly Empty Sky

The Martian atmosphere is less than 1 percent as thick as Earth's and made mostly of carbon dioxide, so surface temperatures swing wildly, from a relatively mild 70 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator on a summer afternoon down to more than 100 degrees below zero at night. That thin atmosphere also means sunsets on Mars appear with a bluish tint near the sun, the reverse of Earth's warm-colored sunsets, because Martian dust scatters light differently than Earth's air.

Rovers That Mapped the Red Terrain

NASA's rovers, including Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance, have driven across Martian canyons, craters, and boulder fields since 2004, gradually building a detailed picture of the rocky terrain shown in scenes like this coloring page. Opportunity alone drove more than 28 miles across the Martian surface over nearly 15 years, far outlasting its original 90-day mission plan.

Evidence of Ancient Rivers and Lakes

Despite its dry, rocky appearance today, orbital images and rover data show clear signs that rivers and lakes once carved channels and left behind rounded pebbles across the Martian surface billions of years ago. Curiosity's exploration of Gale Crater uncovered ancient lakebed sediments, strong evidence that Mars once had a much thicker atmosphere and liquid water flowing across terrain much like the canyon and boulder scene pictured here.

Boulders Scattered by Ancient Impacts

Many of the loose boulders scattered across Mars formed when asteroid or meteor impacts blasted rock fragments outward across the surface, some traveling significant distances before settling into the jumbled fields rovers now photograph up close. Because Mars lacks the wind and water erosion common on Earth, many of these boulders have stayed in roughly the same resting position for millions of years.