Close Mars

I had vaguely heard that Mars was closer to Earth than it had been for millenia, but I hadn’t really paid much attention to that fact before I was outside a couple of weeks ago and was positively freaked out by the red object in the sky near the moon. I’ve never before been able to notice the red color that people claim they can see in Mars (it’s always looked white to me…) so it was the first time I’d ever noticed a star or planet actually having a color, and I found it eerie. Since then, I’ve been keeping a closer eye on Mars coverage, including checking in at the Hubble telescope’s homepage, which has been temporarily taken over with A Rendezvous with Mars special coverage. Definitely check out the video they pieced together of a rotating Mars globe, though all of the images are beautiful. The site also provides convenient links to previous “best images” of Mars, for comparison.