Mars poses for a close up!

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/18/524367.aspx

This month the Hubble space telescope was snapping pictures of the fourth planet from the sun. This year its closer than ever, about 54.8 million miles! Because its this close It's not hard to spot the red planet with a telescope. The Hubble telescope has been capturing mars for over a decade! Today there are two rovers on mars taking pictures of this dry planet. There are also three orbiters orbitting the planet. "It's often surprising to people that, despite the fact that we have this armada of orbiters, landers and rovers on Mars, we can still do useful and unique scientific observations of Mars from Earth," said Cornell astronomer Jim Bell. Bell gets to work on the Hubble team who took the new picture of Mars!