Mars Heading Towards Autumn as Mars Global Surveyor Begins Aerobraking

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture of Mars was taken on September 12, one day after the arrival of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft and only five hours before the beginning of autumn in the Martian northern hemisphere. (Mars is tilted on its axis like Earth, so it has similar seasonal changes, including an autumnal equinox when the Sun crosses Mars' equator from the northern to the southern hemisphere).