Inbox Astronomy: Saturn and Mars Team Up to Make Their Closest Approaches to Earth in 2018

INBOX ASTRONOMY

Saturn and Mars Team Up to Make Their Closest Approaches to Earth in 2018

Release date: Jul 26, 2018 10:00 AM (EDT)

As Saturn and Mars ventured close to Earth, Hubble captured their portraits in June and July 2018, respectively. The telescope photographed the planets near opposition, when the Sun, Earth and an outer planet are lined up, with Earth sitting in between the Sun and the outer planet. Around the time of opposition, a planet is at its closest distance to Earth in its orbit. Hubble viewed Saturn on June 6, when the ringed world was approximately 1.36 billion miles from Earth, as it approached a June 27 opposition. Mars was captured on July 18, at just 36.9 million miles from Earth, near its July 27 opposition. Hubble saw the planets during summertime in Saturn's northern hemisphere and springtime in Mars' southern hemisphere. The increase in sunlight in Saturn's northern hemisphere heated the atmosphere and triggered a large storm that is now disintegrating in Saturn's northern polar region. On Mars, a spring dust storm erupted in the southern hemisphere and ballooned into a global event enshrouding the entire planet.

Read more
Find the entire Hubble News archive, images, and videos at HubbleSite.org.

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach.

Please do not reply to this message.

You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the Inbox Astronomy mailing list.