New close-up photo of Mars shows the red planet in a whole new light
A new photo of Mars shows the red planet in all its rusty, frost-covered glory.
The image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on May 12, reveals Earth's planetary neighbor as a dynamic world complete with a bright red surface and wispy clouds in its atmosphere.
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"The large, dark region to the far right is Syrtis Major Planitia, one of the first features identified on the surface of the planet by seventeenth century observers. Syrtis Major is an ancient, inactive shield volcano," NASA said in a statement.
"Late-afternoon clouds surround its summit in this view. The oval feature south of Syrtis Major is the bright Hellas Planitia basin, the largest crater on Mars."
The Hubble has taken plenty of photos of Mars through the course of its 26 years in orbit.
The intrepid telescope has imaged the planet's ice caps and even caught sight of a global dust storm on the red world in 2001.
This image was taken at a particularly special time, however.
Mars, Earth and the sun will be in alignment on May 22 when Mars reaches opposition with the sun, lining up directly across from the star from Earth's perspective.
During opposition, Mars will look larger in the sky than it usually does, providing amazing opportunities for skywatchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the red planet in a relatively rare position and giving Hubble this special chance to take a detailed photo of Mars.
While Earth and Mars line up favorably every two years, this marks the red planet's closest orbit to our planet in about 11 years, NASA said.
“Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can’t miss it [Mars],” Alan MacRobert, Sky & Telescope magazine senior editor, said in a statement. “Mars looks almost scary now, compared to how it normally looks in the sky.”
Mars will be at its closest point on May 30, when it comes 47.2 million miles from Earth, but that won't change its brightness much by comparison to how it looks now, according to Sky & Telescope.
In 2018, observers -- and maybe even the Hubble -- will have an even better chance to see Mars up-close without leaving Earth.
According to Sky & Telescope, two years from now, the rusty planet will be 34.6 million miles from Earth, the closest Mars ever comes to us.
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
