“Hubble” has received detailed images of Mars during his rendezvous with the Earth – RIA Novosti

10:59 20.05.2016

(updated: 11:18 20.05.2016 )

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MOSCOW, May 20 – RIA Novosti Orbital Observatory “Hubble” has new detailed Mars photographs taken at the time when the red planet began its monthly convergence loop with the Earth, according to the space telescope site

from mid-May to mid-June, Mars and Earth will be located unusually close together – the red planet is now removed from us by only 76 million kilometers, and on 30 May it will approach the Earth 75 million kilometers. This convergence allows astronomers to obtain new, more high-quality images of Mars, which will see the new details of its relief and the cloud cover.

advantage of this opportunity to get photos of the Mars science team “Hubble”, using a wide-angle camera WFC3. These pictures, taken at the end of last week, you can see the “Full Color” Mars with all the details of its relief – giant canyons, extinct volcanoes, the famous canals and other large structures.

In particular, in this photo you can see the valley of Sirte, which is a giant shield volcano length of several hundred kilometers, the Arabian plain where recently found traces of the giant tsunami that once raged in the Martian oceans, as well as a giant 1770-kilometer crater Hellas Planitia, which arose as a result of asteroid 3.5 billion years ago.

in addition to the mountains, craters, and other forms of relief, in this picture the viewer can see Martian clouds, who is now studying probe MAVEN, and finding probe landing point “Viking”, the rover Opportunity, and the lander Mars Pathfinder.

Next “photo session” can be held on Sunday, may 22, when the Earth will be on the path between the red planet and the sun. On this day, as the astronomers say, Mars is especially beautiful, as we will see it in full light conditions.