Hubble Views Mars Through the Years

A Dust Storm on Mars

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this picture of Mars on October 28, within a day of its closest approach to Earth on the night of October 29. Hubble astronomers were also excited to have captured a regional dust storm on Mars that has been growing and evolving over the...

Dust Storm on Mars

Hubble images of the Sinus Meridiani region taken on October 28, 2005 show evidence of a regional dust storm. A comparable Hubble image taken on June 26, 2001 of the same region shows a storm-free environment. The dust storm, which is about 930 miles (1500 km) long, is about the...

Mars Dust Storm – June 26, 2001

Mars Dust Storm – October 28, 2005

Hubble's Visual History of Mars

The orbits of the planets Earth and Mars provide a geometric line up that is out of this world! Every 26 months Mars is opposite the Sun in our nighttime sky. Since the repair of the Hubble telescope in 1993, Mars has been at such an "opposition" with the Sun six times. A color...

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 1995

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 1997

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 1999

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 2001

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 2003

Mars Near Opposition 1995-2005: 2005

Close Encounter: Mars at Opposition

This illustration shows the relative positions of Earth and Mars at the last six oppositions, when the Sun and Mars are on exact opposite sides of Earth. The images of Mars show the planet's apparent relative size at each opposition, as viewed by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space...

Mars Image Showing the High Resolution Camera's "Occulting Mask"

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on Hubble Space Telescope includes two cameras, the Wide Field Channel (WFC) and the High Resolution Channel (HRC). Images from the WFC are roughly 4,000 pixels square with a scale of roughly 0.05 arcseconds per pixel. Images from the HRC are...

Two Views of Mars

In 2005, the Mars closest approach and opposition occurred within a week of each other. On October 28/29 (depending on what time zone one lived), Mars was the closest it has been in the last two years, reaching a distance of only 43 million miles from Earth. On this date, the...

Mars ACS/HRC: October 28, 2005

Mars WFPC2: November 8, 2005