Solar System
Close Encounter: Mars at Opposition
November 3, 2005 · NASA
This illustration shows the relative positions of Earth and Mars at the last six oppositions, when the Sun and Mars are on exact opposite sides of Earth. The images of Mars show the planet's apparent relative size at each opposition, as viewed by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Orbits of the inner planets are to scale.
About the data
The 2005 image was created from HST proposal 10770 : K. Noll (The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI), J. Bell (Cornell Univ.), M. Wolff (Space Science Inst.), H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, W. Januszewski, Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, and T. Royle (The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI).
