MARS KICKS UP THE DUST AS IT MAKES CLOSEST APPROACH TO EARTH (STScI-PRC05-34-Heritage)

FOR RELEASE: 9;00 am (EST) November 3, 2005

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC05-34a

MARS KICKS UP THE DUST AS IT MAKES CLOSEST APPROACH TO EARTH

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. The large regional dust storm appears as the brighter,
redder cloudy region in the middle of the planet's disk. This storm,
which measures 930 miles (1500 km) has been churning in the planet's
equatorial regions for several weeks now, and it is likely responsible
for the reddish, dusty haze and other dust clouds seen across this
hemisphere of the planet. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys High
Resolution Imager took this image when the red planet was 43 million
miles (69 million km) from Earth. Mars won't be this close again to
Earth until 2018. Mars is now in its warmest months, closest to the Sun
in its orbit, resulting in a smaller than normal south polar ice cap
which has largely sublimated with the approaching summer.

Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA),
J. Bell (Cornell University), and M. Wolff (Space Science
Institute)

For the full story, please visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/34
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2005/34

For additional information, please contact Jim Bell, Cornell
University, 402 Space Sciences Building,  Ithaca, NY 14853,
(phone) 607-255-5911, (e-mail) jfb8@xxxxxxxxxxx, or

Mike Wolff, Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut St., #205,
Boulder, CO 80301, (phone) 262-790-1356, (e-mail)
wolff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or

Keith Noll, Hubble Heritage Team, Space Telescope Science
Institute,3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21218, (phone)
410-338-1828, (fax) 410-338-4579, (e-mail) noll@xxxxxxxxxx

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.
(AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project
of international cooperation between NASA and the European
Space Agency (ESA).

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