Credit: Jim Bell (Cornell U.), Steve Lee (U. Colorado), Mike Wolff (SSI), andNASA/ESA

The discovery image of the Martian polar storm as seen in blue light (410 nm). The storm is located near 65 deg. N latitude and 85 deg. W longitude, and is more than 1000 miles (1600 km) across. The residual north polar water ice cap is at top. A belt of clouds like that seen in previous telescopic observations during this Martian season can also be seen in the planet's equatorial regions and northern mid-latitudes, as well as in the southern polar regions. The volcano Ascraeus Mons can be seen as a dark spot poking above the cloud deck near the western (morning) limb; this extinct volcano towers nearly 16 miles (25 km) above the surrounding plains, and is about 250 miles (400 km) across.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9922b/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License