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Holiday weather on Mars

13 August 2003

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Beagle 2 will descend to the surface, entering the atmosphere at more than 20 000 km/h. A heat-resistant front shield will protect it as friction with the upper atmosphere slows it down. When its speed has fallen to about 1600 km/h, parachutes will deploy to slow it further.

Credits: Illustration by Medialab, ESA 2001

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The Beagle-2 lander, to be carried on ESA's Mars Express, is equipped with a suite of instruments designed to look for evidence of life on Mars.

Credits: ESA/Medialab

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Frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms above a vivid rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope. The Earth-orbiting Hubble telescope snapped this picture on June 26, when Mars was approximately 43 million miles (68 million km) from Earth - its closest approach to our planet since 1988. Hubble can see details as small as 10 miles (16 km) across. Especially striking is the large amount of seasonal dust storm activity seen in this image. One large storm system is churning high above the northern polar cap [top of image], and a smaller dust storm cloud can be seen nearby. Another large duststorm is spilling out of the giant Hellas impact basin in the Southern Hemisphere [lower right].

Credits: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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