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.
Object Name: Mars
Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below: