Mars is on a date with Earth
Mars is on the date of a close encounter with Earth.
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| Mars, it's far? |
On October 13, the planet Mars will rise at sunset in an astronomical phenomenon called "opposition," in which the planet is facing the sun on the other side of the earth. If the sun goes down, it shines and vice versa.
The orbit of Mars.
The planet Mars revolves around the sun in a cycle of less than two Earth years (1.8 years) known as the "stellar cycle", but it meets Earth at a point close to each other once every 2.13 years, which is the "cycle of the conjunction" because it connects Mars to Earth and the Sun on a distant line. It is the lowest between them.
With each encounter, the distance between the two planets decreases to 57 million kilometers on the day of the "greatest encounter" which occurs once every 15 years, and the last time was two ago. years on July 27, 2018, and before that. on August 28, 2003, and the distance between them increases to 400 million kilometers while the planet is on the other side of us in its orbit around the sun.
In its current encounter with Earth, which takes place on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, the distance between us and Mars will be approximately 63 million km, which will allow amateurs to observe it with their telescopes.
How to see Mars.
As Mars slowly approaches Earth and winter sets in at its south pole, white ice caps begin to emerge behind the lenses of amateur telescopes.
And because the Martian atmosphere is thin, and in the event that it is calm and not excited by dust, the characteristics of the surface of Mars will also be clear, and the most important of these characteristics is a huge landmark called "Arabia" because it looks like it, and it is a light-colored area adjacent to a dark-colored landmark called in Latin "Certus Major", which is the Gulf of Libya on the coast of Sidra, located in the Libyan Jamahiriya. These names were launched by the International Astronomical Union.
Is Mars visible to the naked eye?
If you want to know more about Mars, you have to look east an hour after sunset, to find a bright red celestial body glowing in that direction, and no other light is better than this at except for Jupiter, which is close to a brilliant white in the middle of the sky.
Besides Jupiter and a little to the left of it, you can also see the planet Saturn a little faint, and so you have gathered the vision of 3 bright planets in the sky at a time.
Suspicious movement.
Mars is a planet with an external orbit with respect to the Earth (i.e. it is slower in its rotation around the sun than the Earth), it stops during its movement from west to east (as seen in relation to distant stars), then returns from east to west, that is, in the opposite direction of its initial motion. About a month or so, it stops again to return to its first eastward movement as it was.
The explanation is that the fast Earth when it reaches the point of passing slow Mars, shows its inhabitants that Mars has started to turn around, and as soon as the Earth moves away from it in its orbit, the phenomenon disappears and Mars returns to its original form of motion. All the exoplanets that follow it participate in this phenomenon, but it is less visible and perceptible.
Hobbyists and those interested should not miss any activity or activity to observe Mars, as its view from behind telescope lenses is truly magnificent, as it is the closest planet to Earth at this time.