Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2020 October 1
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                        Solis Lacus: The Eye of Mars
                Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Damian Peach

   Explanation: As telescopes around planet Earth watch, [5]Mars is
   growing brighter in night skies, approaching its 2020 opposition on
   October 13. Mars looks like its watching too in this view of [6]the Red
   Planet from September 22. Mars' disk is already near its maximum
   apparent size for earthbound telescopes, less than 1/80th the apparent
   diameter of a Full Moon. The seasonally shrinking south polar cap is at
   the bottom and hazy northern clouds are at the top. A circular, dark
   albedo feature, Solis Lacus (Lake of the Sun), is just below and left
   of disk center. Surrounded by a light area south of Valles Marineris,
   Solis Lacus looks like a planet-sized pupil, famously known as [7]The
   Eye of Mars . Near the turn of the 20th century, astronomer and avid
   [8]Mars watcher Percival Lowell associated the Eye of Mars with a
   conjunction of [9]canals he charted in his [10]drawings of the Red
   Planet. Broad, visible changes in the size and shape of the Eye of Mars
   are now [11]understood from high resolution surface images to be due to
   dust transported by winds in the thin [12]Martian atmosphere.

                      Tomorrow's picture: harvest moon
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([27]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply.
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                A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/m2020_09_22Adp.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://twitter.com/peachastro
   5. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/photos-mars-at-its-best-sep-oct-2020
   6. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/
   7. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003JALPO..45b..38.
   8. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1895/08/mars-part-iv/309151/
   9. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Mars-photographs-as-reproduced-in-Percival-Lowell-New-photographs-of-Mars-taken-by-the_fig5_248946023
  10. https://britastro.org/node/21923
  11. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2598.pdf
  12. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200930.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201001
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201002.html
  24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/