This is a great picture released today.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 55 million miles – 88 million kilometers – away. The color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken within 36 hours of the Mars closest approach with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Mars will be closest to Earth on December 18, at 11:45 p.m. Universal Time (6:45 p.m. EST).
Hubble Site, 18th December.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/arc...07/45/image/a/