File:Mars and Syrtis Major (9460798656).jpg
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Summary
editDescriptionMars and Syrtis Major (9460798656).jpg |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red; some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. The dark feature known as Syrtis Major was first seen telescopically by the astronomer Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century. Many small, dark, circular impact craters can be seen in this region, attesting to the Hubble telescope's ability to reveal fine detail on the planet's surface. To the south of Syrtis is a large circular feature called Hellas. Viking and more recently Mars Global Surveyor have revealed that Hellas is a large and deep impact crater. These Hubble telescope pictures show it to be filled with surface frost and water ice clouds. Along the right limb, late afternoon clouds have formed around the volcano Elysium. Image # : PR99-27D |
Date | |
Source | Mars and Syrtis Major |
Author | NASA on The Commons |
Permission (Reusing this file) |
NASA on The Commons @ Flickr Commons |
Licensing
editThis image was taken from Flickr's The Commons. The uploading organization may have various reasons for determining that no known copyright restrictions exist, such as: No known copyright restrictionsNo restrictionshttps://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/false
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by NASA on The Commons at https://flickr.com/photos/44494372@N05/9460798656. It was reviewed on 28 September 2015 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the No known copyright restrictions. |
28 September 2015
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Author | NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center - Space Telescope Science Institute |
Date and time of data generation | 00:00, 30 June 1999 |
Credit/Provider | NASA |
Source | NASA |
Online copyright statement | http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html#.Ue6Pwj3piSo |
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Width | 800 px |
Height | 800 px |
Bits per component |
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Pixel composition | RGB |
Orientation | Normal |
Number of components | 3 |
Horizontal resolution | 200 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 200 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 00:00, 30 June 1999 |
Exif version | 2.21 |
Date and time of digitizing | 00:00, 30 June 1999 |
Color space | sRGB |
Unique ID of original document | 4F2A4C6078063E72BE720AB5CC6AF0C7 |
Date metadata was last modified | 06:34, 23 July 2013 |
Copyright status | Copyright status not set |
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IIM version | 4 |