NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of Mars on August 27, 2003, during the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years. Mars was is 34,647,420 miles (55,757,930 km) from Earth.
Several prominent Martian features are easily visible:
- The largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons [the oval-shaped feature just above center] which is the size of Arizona and three times higher than Mount Everest
- A 4000 km long system of canyons called Valles Marineris [below Olympus Mons and to the right]
- The south polar ice cap [bottom of picture] which is smaller than normal since the image was taken during the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere. The cap is made of carbon dioxide ice and water ice, but only the surface carbon dioxide ice is seen in this image.
Mars and Earth are closer than normal about every 26 months, since Earth orbits the Sun twice as fast as Mars, lapping it about every two years. However, both planets have elliptical orbits, so their close encounters are not always at the same distance. Mars will not be as close as it was in August 2003 until the year 2287.
The information and photo above were obtained from the excellent website called 'The Hubble Site'.
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