Not a single living soul alive today shall see Mars this close to the Earth again.
The large somewhat circular dark formation just to the upper right of center is named "Solis Lacus" and is sometimes called "The Eye of Mars". The planet is only a little over 1/2 the size of the Earth but has a 25 hour day, although the full cycle of its seasons is equal to a long 23 Earth months.
South is up in this image and so shows the southern polar cap which is mostly made of frozen carbon dioxide which condenses on a smaller core of frozen water. The planet is also home to a canyon of some 7 km (4.3 miles) in depth and longer than the continental U.S.
It is known as "the red planet" due to it's color which is caused by natural oxidation of its surface materials, or in other words it is literally covered in rust.
It is still unknown if life of any kind exists on Mars, or if it has sometime in the past.
This world is mankind's best hope for future colonization with natuaral resources already available there. Currently a trip to the red planet would take a crew at least 6 months of space travel to arrive there, and then at least 6 months back.
This image (actually a composite of many digital images) was taken just 4 nights after closest approach.
Image Acquisition:
Meade 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope at f/10 on Losmandy G-11 mount. Olympus C-730 3.2 Megapixel Digital Camera at full 10x optical (non-digital) zoom. Camera attached to Telescope on-axis (no diagonal) via Scopetronix brand Digi-T system with 18mm University Optics Multi-coated Orthoscopic ocular at the so-called prime focus. Exposures were typically 1/30 of a second. Date: Aug. 31, 2003 9:23 UT.
Processing:
Approximately 57 frames registered and stacked from a total of 188 utilizing Registax software. Digital enhancement in Photoshop 7.0 with conversion to web quality JPEG and additional minor processing done in "Microsoft Picture It! 99" software.
