Hubble Telescope Captures Incredible Up-Close View of Mars

Hubble took the photo on May 12, when Mars was just 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) from Earth. Opposition "marks the planet's closest approach to Earth, so that Mars appears bigger and brighter in the sky than usual," European Space Agency officials wrote today (May 19) in a description of the newly released photo. The closest approach will actually come on May 30, when Earth and Mars are separated by 46.8 million miles (75.3 million km).