Surface features as small as 20 to 30 miles across are seen in the photograph, recorded from a distance of 50 million miles.
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After the examination of the geologic shape of past shorelines through Mars’ northern plains, Cornell University researchers suggest that two large meteorites hit the Red Planet millions of years apart, leading to a pair of ancient, massive tsunamis.
Rodriguez plans to look for more evidence of tsunamis on Mars and investigate tsunami-created impacts here on Earth. Mars oppositions happen every two years, but the distance between Earth and Mars varies because the planets have different orbits. Just like a NASCAR racer taking the inside lane around a turn, Earth’s inside lane means it can circle the sun more quickly than the slower outer orbit of Mars.
Mars oppositions occur approximately ever 780 days.
The last time Mars was this close to Earth it was November 2005, which makes this weekend the ideal one to look to the skies.
Hubble’s latest Mars image, which was taken with the telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) will help astronomers study large-scale changes on the red planet’s surface, scientists say.
The orange area in the centre of the image is Arabia Terra, a vast upland region in northern Mars that covers about 2,800 miles. This time, it has captured a stunning footage of Mars, showing the red planet in great details with ice caps, craters, clouds and other features.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of global cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. They are above Syrtis Major, one of the first landmarks identified on Mars.
A lot of events will be lighting up the sky this weekend, as stargazers will be treated to two celestial events: a blue moon on Saturday, and a Mars opposition the day after.
If you like a bit sky-watching Mars will be getting up close and personal and therefore should be easy to spot. Just south of that is an oval crater called the Hellas Planitia basin – the largest crater on the planet, more than 1,000 miles across – which was formed by an asteroid 3.5 billion years ago.
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Running along the equator, Sinus Meridiani and Sinus Sabaeus are dark ribbons composed from fine-grained sand together with dark bedrock. Previous approaches appear to be closer than other ones. These regions are covered by bedrocks of ancient lava flows. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations.
