File:Hubble's Closest View of Mars in 60,000 Years- August 27, 2003.jpg

English: The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this portrait of Mars on August 27, 2003, within minutes of the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years. In this picture, the Red Planet is 34,647,420 miles (55,757,930 km) from Earth.

This sharp, natural-color view of Mars reveals several prominent Martian features.

Olympus Mons (the oval-shaped feature just above center) is the size of Arizona and three times higher than Mount Everest. The dormant volcano resides in a region called the Tharsis Bulge, which is home to several extinct volcanoes. The three Tharsis Montes volcanoes are lined up just below Olympus Mons. Faint clouds hover over Arsia Mons, the southernmost of these volcanoes.

The long, dark scar on the far right, below and to the right of the Tharsis Bulge, is Valles Marineris, a 2,480-mile (4,000-km) system of canyons. Just below Valles Marineris is Solis Lacus, also known as the "Eye of Mars." The dark features to the left of Solis Lacus are the southern highlands, called Terra Sirenum, a region riddled with impact craters ranging in size from 31 to 124 miles (50 to 200 km).

The image was taken during the middle of summer in the planet's southern hemisphere. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the southern polar ice cap, causing the cap to shrink in size (bottom of image). The orange streaks are indications of dust activity over the polar cap. By contrast, the northern hemisphere was in the midst of winter. A wave of clouds covers the northern polar ice cap and the surrounding region (top of image).

Mars and Earth make a "close encounter" about every 26 months, but due to differences in the two planets' elliptical orbits, Mars will not be this close again until 2287.

For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2003-22

Credit: NASA, J. Bell (Cornell U.), and M. Wolff (SSI);

Additional image processing and analysis support from: K. Noll and A. Lubenow (STScI); M. Hubbard (Cornell U.); R. Morris (NASA/JSC); P. James (U. Toledo); S. Lee (U. Colorado); and T. Clancy, B. Whitney and G. Videen (SSI); and Y. Shkuratov (Kharkov U.)