Photos: Hubble Space Telescope Gets Magnificent Images of Mars and Saturn

It is the best weekend of the year to see the planet Mars. This is because Mars and the sun are aligned in opposition on July 27th. When this happens, the planet shines more and more in the night sky. In addition, the opposition occurs just a few days before Earth and Mars reach their closest rapprochement on July 31. This makes Mars appear slightly larger in the sky than normal.

NASA recently took advantage of Mars' larger and brighter growth in the night sky and turned the Hubble Space Telescope to take this photo of the planet on June 6th.

This is Mars, the cheddar colored marble.

NASA, ESA, and STScI

One thing to note about this photo: Mars is almost completely covered by a dust storm on the planet's scale, obscuring the details of the planet's geography.

Two years ago, Hubble took a similar picture, but the dust did not bother. Here's what he saw. You can distinguish the large basins, valleys and craters of Mars.

NASA / Hubble

Planetary storms are common on Mars (remember The Martian ?), Especially when it's been summer in the southern hemisphere Of March. Here is NASA's explanation:

As the atmosphere heats up, winds generated by greater surface temperature contrasts at different locations mobilize dust particles the size of grains of individual talcum powder. Frozen carbon dioxide on the winter fleece hood evaporates, thickening the atmosphere and increasing surface pressure. This enhances the process by helping to suspend dust particles in the air. In some cases, dust clouds reach up to 40 miles (60 kilometers) or more in altitude.

NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers are currently caught in the haze, and Opportunity, which runs on solar power, has stopped rolling out of the storm. But here's an image captured on June 15 by Nuclear Power Curiosity

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Bonus Photo: Saturn

The Hubble Space Telescope recently took advantage of another special opportunity: Saturn in perfect position to show his glorious rings. This photo was taken on June 6, three weeks before Saturn arrives at the opposition. At that moment, he was getting closer to his maximum inclination, which meant that he was inclined in such a way that his rings were lit by loads of sunlight.

In this photo, we can also see the hexagonal storm that surrounds the north pole of Saturn

NASA, ESA, Amy Simon and the OPAL team, and J. DePasquale (STScI)