March 24, 1997
Somewhere in the sky tonight, a star is being born in a cloud of gas and dust, beginning a journey that will last billions of years.
The Weather on Mars Credit:
Birthday · March 24, 1997
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published March 24, 1997. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Would Mars be a nice place to visit? Sometimes. Much of Mars undergoes severe changes in climate during its orbit around the Sun, ranging from extreme cold to temperatures enjoyable by humans. But Mars is usually a nice place to visit for hardy spacecraft, and in fact the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions are currently headed for the "Red Planet." In preparation for the scheduled Mars Pathfinder landing on July 4th, 1997, the Earth-Orbiting Hubble Space Telescope recently took the above high resolution photograph. The picture shows the onset of Martian summer (northern hemisphere) when, apparently, the northern polar cap recedes to uncover dark sand dunes.