As Mars drew nearer to Earth this month, the Hubble Space Telescope took an image that reveals details as small as 20 miles across.
A press release from the Space Telescope Science Institute described the features in the image from May 12, when Mars was 50 million miles from Earth:
• The large, dark region at far right is Syrtis Major Planitia, an ancient, inactive shield volcano.
• The large oval feature to its south is the bright Hellas Planitia basin, formed about 3.5 billion years ago by an asteroid impact.
• The orange area in the center of the image is Arabia Terra, a vast upland region that is densely cratered and heavily eroded.
•; An extended blanket of clouds can be seen over the southern polar cap. The icy northern polar cap has receded to a comparatively small size because it is now late summer in the northern hemisphere. • This hemisphere of Mars contains landing sites for several NASA Mars surface robotic missions, including Viking 1 (1976), Mars Pathfinder (1997), and the still-operating Opportunity Mars rover. The landing sites of the Spirit and Curiosity Mars rovers are on the other side of the planet.
• The large, dark region at far right is Syrtis Major Planitia, an ancient, inactive shield volcano.
• The large oval feature to its south is the bright Hellas Planitia basin, formed about 3.5 billion years ago by an asteroid impact.
• The orange area in the center of the image is Arabia Terra, a vast upland region that is densely cratered and heavily eroded.
•; An extended blanket of clouds can be seen over the southern polar cap. The icy northern polar cap has receded to a comparatively small size because it is now late summer in the northern hemisphere. • This hemisphere of Mars contains landing sites for several NASA Mars surface robotic missions, including Viking 1 (1976), Mars Pathfinder (1997), and the still-operating Opportunity Mars rover. The landing sites of the Spirit and Curiosity Mars rovers are on the other side of the planet.
http://www.mercurynews.com/space/ci_29926683/mars-closeup-hubble-image
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