Scientists Track 'Perfect Storm' on Mars

Two dramatically different faces of our Red Planet neighbor appear in these comparison images showing how a global dust storm engulfed Mars with the onset of Martian spring in the Southern Hemisphere. When Hubble imaged Mars in June, the seeds of the storm were caught brewing in the giant Hellas Basin (oval at 4 o'clock position on disk) and in another storm at the northern polar cap. When Hubble photographed Mars in early September, the storm had already been raging across the planet for nearly two months obscuring allsurface features.