Hubble Takes Mars Portrait Near Close Approach
stsci_2016-15a May 19th, 2016
Credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
On May 12, 2016, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of Mars, when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth. The photo reveals details as small as 20 miles to 30 miles across. This observation was made just a few days before Mars opposition on May 22, when the sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth. Mars also will be 47.4 million miles from Earth. On May 30, Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth in 11 years, at a distance of 46.8 million miles. Mars is especially photogenic during opposition because it can be seen fully illuminated by the sun as viewed from Earth.
Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute
Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-15
Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA
Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 2016-15a
- Subject Category
- A.1.1.1
- Subject Name
- Mars
- Credits
- Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
- Release Date
- 2016-05-19T00:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-15
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- On May 12, 2016, Mars was 0.53 astronomical unit (50 million miles or 80 million kilometers) away from Earth.
- Facility
- Hubble, Hubble, Hubble, Hubble
- Instrument
- WFC3/UVIS, WFC3/UVIS, WFC3/UVIS, WFC3/UVIS
- Color Assignment
- Purple, Blue, Green, Red
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- Central Wavelength
- 275, 410, 502, 673
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- Reference Value
- 16.1879481, -21.7300833
- Reference Dimension
- Reference Pixel
- Scale
- Rotation
- Coordinate System Projection:
- Quality
- Position
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- STScI
- URL
- http://hubblesite.org
- Name
- Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
- outreach@stsci.edu
- Telephone
- 410-338-4444
- Address
- 3700 San Martin Drive
- City
- Baltimore
- State/Province
- MD
- Postal Code
- 21218
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://hubblesite.org/copyright/
- Publisher
- STScI
- Publisher ID
- stsci
- Resource ID
- STSCI-H-p1615a-f-2000x2000.tif
- Resource URL
- https://mast.stsci.edu/api/latest/Download/file?uri=mast:OPO/product/STSCI-H-p1615a-f-2000x2000.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2021-12-13T17:28:37-05:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
