Because Mars has an elliptical orbit, the distance between it and Earth during oppositions can vary a great deal.
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, credited with capturing some of the most detailed and magnificent images of cosmic structures, has snapped another masterpiece. Mars came within 34.65 million miles of Earth in 2003. Hubble snapped the image on May 12 with Mars at a distance of 50 million miles (about 80.5 million kilometers).
On May 30, Mars will be closest to the Earth with just 46.8 million miles separating them, meaning that the closest approach and opposition will not occur at the same time. The stunning image shows details as small as 20 to 30 miles across.
“From our perspective on our spinning world, Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west. Then, after staying up in the sky the entire night, Mars sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east”, NASA explains on its website.
Mars and Earth line up around the Sun this way as often as once every two years or so (every 780 days, to be precise).
Major viewing parties are scheduled for two very rare total solar eclipses in the next 10 years at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Mars is now brighter than usual and closer to Earth than it has been in years. On the far right is a large, dark region called Syrtis Major Planitia, which is home to a huge ancient (and inactive) volcano.
Mars as it was observed shortly before opposition in May 2016 by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The special alignment of planets is due to the orbits of Earth and Mars. Once you see the full moon, you may see a bright red star to the right of our Moon, with that bright red star being none other than Mars.
The Hubble space telescope, which was launched by NASA in 1990, celebrated its 25 anniversary a year ago.
In the centre of the image is Arabia Terra, the vast orange area which covers 2,800 miles of deeply cratered and eroded land that may be among the planet’s oldest landscape.
If you like a bit sky-watching Mars will be getting up close and personal and therefore should be easy to spot.
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These darker regions are covered by dark bedrock and fine-grained sand deposits ground down from ancient lava flows and other volcanic features.
