New Hubble Mars Images released!

Yeah theses are some pretty nice pics here! Im supposed to goto a star party Sept 5 & 6 at the Tulsa Zoo and check out the surface on a 16 inch tele so hopefully the weather will permit

These Hubbles are awesome:

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 4:24 p.m. ET upon release of the second color photograph.

NASA released a pair of highly anticipated Mars portraits from the Hubble Space Telescope today as the observatory's operators took advantage of a proximity to the red planet not equaled in 59,619 years.
The first color photograph, released early in the morning, includes Mars' Hellas Basin, a huge impact crater, and the southern polar ice cap is unmistakable.

The second image shows Mars' version of the Grand Canyon, called Valles Marineris, a vast system of gorges and side canyons that stretches across 2,485 miles (4,000 kilometers) of the Martian surface. Drop Valles Marineris on the United States and would reach nearly coast to coast.

They are the most detailed full-globe shots of Mars ever obtained from Earth's vicinity.

"These images are likely to be the ones that appear in astronomy textbooks for the next decade to century because they are the best resolution we can get from Earth for a long time," said Cornell University astronomer Jim Bell.

www.space.com...







[Edited on 28-8-2003 by thehippiedude]

Remember this old photo of the surface? Pretty crazy lookin:




Scientists name Mars rocks so they can discuss them more conveniently. The process was creative on the Pathfinder mission, yielding Yogi (seen here), Stimpy, Boo Boo and Barnacle Bill. Remember the Viking rock named Joe?


[Edited on 28-8-2003 by thehippiedude]

I thought the Hubble would be able to get much much closer than that..

LOL and look heres even an article on us!!!





The Last Time Mars Was This Close


Nobody wrote down what Mars looked like 59,619 years ago, the last time it was as close to Earth as this week. They also failed to note who all was on this planet and what they were doing.

But scientists have pieced together some information, and they figure a family of Neanderthals, perhaps like this one, would have seen a reddish dot something like what's depicted in this artist's conception.

The family does not appear to be worrying about little green men. It took modern human intellect to come up with that concern. In fact, they don't even seem to notice Mars at all. Perhaps the Neanderthals were annoyed with another sort of creature, though: the humans they probably competed with.

Neanderthals lived in parts of Eurasia during the last Ice Age. They looked similar to modern humans but with more pronounced foreheads, wider noses and larger jaws. Neanderthals were short, stocky and said to be robust.

Not robust enough, though. They died out, about 35,000 years ago. Nobody knows why. Perhaps your great-great-a-thousand-times-great grandparents did them in, experts speculate.

The woolly mammoth, pictured in the back right of the drawing, didn't make it either. (I try and never miss an opportunity to mention woolly mammoths in an article. Otherwise, far as I know, they have nothing whatsoever to do with Mars.) A lot of other species haven't survived the 60 millennia between these closest planetary passes, either.

Perhaps as modern humans around the world gaze up and ponder our shimmering red planetary neighbor this week, we can hope the fate of our species is better than some of those who last witnessed Mars this close.

I actually think my long hair is much much nicer looking and smells much better or at least the chics seem to dig it and think so!

MKULTRA: the hubble really isn't designed for focusing on objects too close to earth. it's like trying to read a book too close to your face.

WASHINGTON -- Despite pleas from a parade of astronomers that NASA consider extending the life and capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the U.S. space agency appears unlikely to change its plans to deorbit the space borne astronomy platform in 2010.

Now that NASA is firmly committed to the James Webb Space Telescope, a deep-space observatory due for launch in 2011 on a European Ariane 5 rocket, there is no compelling reason to invest further in the aging Hubble telescope, said Anne Kinney, division director of astronomy and physics at NASA headquarters. While Hubble can at best be souped up with new instruments, its planned successor offers vastly superior capabilities, Kinney said in an interview during a NASA-sponsored conference organized to debate Hubble's future.

"For us to continue making discoveries, it's important to move on" to the James Webb telescope, often known as JWST, said Kinney. "There is no guarantee that Hubble's instruments will last. It could end up dead in the water."

www.space.com...