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Credit: J. Bell (Cornell),
M. Wolff
(Space Science Inst.),
Hubble Heritage Team (STScI /
AURA),
NASA
Explanation:
For months now,
Mars
has been engulfed by a great dust storm, the biggest
seen raging across the
Red Planet in
decades.
As a result, these two Hubble Space Telescope
storm
watch images from late June and
early September offer dramatically contrasting views
of the martian surface.
At left, the onset of smaller "seed" storms can be seen near
the Hellas basin
(lower right edge of Mars) and the
northern polar cap.
A similar surface view at right, taken over two months later,
shows the fully developed extent of the obscuring global dust storm.
The storm is reported to be waning, but planet-wide effects such as the
warming of the upper
martian
atmosphere and cooling of the surface are
still being monitored daily by
instruments on board the Mars Global
Surveyor spacecraft.
The present condition of the martian atmosphere is
also
important to the aerobraking
Mars
Odyssey spacecraft, scheduled to arrive
at the Red Planet next week.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: storm - dust - Mars
Publications with words: storm - dust - Mars
See also: