Hubble Telescope Captures Incredible Up-Close View of Mars

[Ichingcarpenter]

An amazing new Mars image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows clouds, craters, ice caps and other features on the Red Planet.

Hubble took the photo on May 12, when Mars was just 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) from Earth. That's quite close in the cosmic scheme of things; Mars is nearly at "opposition" — when the planet and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth from each other — which will come on May 22.

- See more at: http://www.space.com/32926-mars-opposition-amazing-hubble-photo.html#sthash.yMwYIjue.dpuf








Question? Why haven't we seen any close up Hubble photos of the Moon?

[MFM008]

1. because the moon men wont allow it

Hey, it could be our moon men, whos going to check?

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I think you mean 'Cat-Women of the Moon''

Moon men make no sense


''Tiger''

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Um, because we have oodles of hi-res pictures from lunar orbit ?

Hubble photos would be inferior. Photos taken from only 12 miles above the surface give much better resolution than photos from 239,000 miles away -- about 20,000 x better resolution.

Lunar orbiters have mapped the Moon repeatedly, from various angles and under various conditions of illumination.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasas-lro-moves-closer-to-the-lunar-surface

Unlike Mars, the Moon doesn't have weather, so there's little point in double-checking what it looks like now, as opposed to last year, either.

[byronius]

4. That is an awesome link. Thank you.

[Fumesucker]

6. There is a Mars orbiter also taking pictures, the same resolution argument applies far more so

[Fumesucker]

5. There's a bloke in the UK who images the planets from his garden

With pretty much off the shelf commercial optics.

Damian Peach.