Mars and Earth reached the point in their yearly orbits when they align with the Sun on May 22, 2016. We call this opposition, meaning Mars is on the opposite side of Earth than the Sun. This happens once every two Earth years for Mars. During opposition is the best time to sneak a peek. We captured this photo of Mars during the early morning on Monday, May 23rd. Visible in this photo are bright white clouds over the southern polar ice cap, white swirly clouds over Elysium Mons in the northeast, and Syrtis Major Planum rotating into view in the southwest.m -Scott