Martian dust storm.The orbits of Mars and Earth approach each other about every 2 years. During the most recent near passage, on Oct. 28, the planets came within 69 million kilometers of each other, the closest they'll come until 2018. A Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. image taken a day later shows equatorial dust clouds covering an area up to 1,500 km across. NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. scientists say that the likely cause of the clouds was a large dust storm. Observations by other telescopes indicate that the storm has abated Abated, an ancient technical term applied in masonry and metal work to those portions which are sunk beneath the surface, as in inscriptions where the ground is sunk round the letters so as to leave the letters or ornament in relief. From 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica . That's good news for the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit, now roaming the Martian surface (SN: 5/28/05, p. 344). "We were most concerned about the potential for heavy dust [from the storm] to blot out the sun and decrease the available solar power for the rovers, especially Opportunity, which was closest to the storm," notes James Bell James Bell may refer to:
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