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MARS - August
27, 2003
Hubble Space
Telescope
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Reprinted from HubbleSite News Center
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this portrait of Mars within minutes of
the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years. This image was
made from a series of exposures taken between 5:35 a.m. and 6:20 a.m. EDT Aug.
27 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. In this picture, the red
planet is 34,647,420 miles (55,757,930 km) from Earth.
This sharp, natural-color view of Mars reveals several prominent Martian
features, including the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons; a
system of canyons called Valles Marineris; an immense dark marking called Solis
Lacus; and the southern polar ice cap.
Olympus Mons [the oval-shaped feature just above center] is the size of
Arizona and three times higher than Mount Everest. The dormant volcano resides
in a region called the Tharsis Bulge, which is about the size of the U.S. and
home to several extinct volcanoes. The three Tharsis Montes volcanoes are lined
up just below Olympus Mons. Faint clouds are hovering over Arsia Mons, the
southernmost of these volcanoes.
The long, dark scar, below and to the right of the Tharsis Bulge, is Valles
Marineris, a 2,480-mile (4,000-km) system of canyons. Just below Valles
Marineris is Solis Lacus, also known as the "Eye of Mars." The dark
features to the left of Solis Lacus are the southern highlands, called Terra
Sirenum, a region riddled with impact craters. The diameters of these craters
range from 31 to 124 miles (50 to 200 km).
The image was taken during the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
During this season the Sun shines continuously on the southern polar ice cap,
causing the cap to shrink in size [bottom of image]. The orange streaks are
indications of dust activity over the polar cap. The cap is made of carbon
dioxide ice and water ice, but only carbon dioxide ice is seen in this image.
The water ice is buried beneath the carbon dioxide ice. It will only be revealed
when the cap recedes even more over the next two months. By contrast, the
Northern Hemisphere is in the midst of winter. A wave of clouds covers the
northern polar ice cap and the surrounding region [top of image].
This view of Mars reveals a striking contrast between the Northern and
Southern hemispheres. The Northern Hemisphere is home to volcanoes that may have
been active about 1 billion years ago. These volcanoes resurfaced the north's
landscape, perhaps filling in many impact craters. The Southern Hemisphere is
pockmarked with ancient impact craters, which appear dark because many are
filled with coarser sand-sized particles.
Mars and Earth make a "close encounter" about every 26 months.
These periodic encounters are due to the differences in the two planets' orbits.
Earth goes around the Sun twice as fast as Mars, lapping the red planet about
every two years. Both planets have elliptical orbits, so their close encounters
are not always at the same distance. In its close encounter with Earth in 2001,
for example, Mars was about 9 million miles farther away. Because Mars was much
closer during this year's rendezvous, the planet will appeared 23 percent larger
in the sky. Mars will not be this close again until 2287.
This photograph is a color composite generated from observations taken with
blue, green, and red filters. A total of 11 filters, spanning a wide wavelength
range—-from blue to near infrared—-were used during the observations. The
shorter wavelengths show clouds and other atmospheric changes. The longer
wavelengths, including the near infrared, reveal Martian surface features.
Credit: NASA,
J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI)
Additional image processing and analysis
support from: K. Noll and A. Lubenow (STScI);
M. Hubbard (Cornell U.); R. Morris (NASA/JSC);
P. James (U. Toledo); S. Lee (U. Colorado); and T. Clancy, B. Whitney and G.
Videen (SSI); and Y. Shkuratov (Kharkov U.)
Image Type:Astronomical
STScI-PRC2003-22b
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