Mars and Earth are about to overlap in their race around the sun. This celestial alignment of Mars and Earth will make it the closest the planets have been in over a decade. Mars, also known as the “Red Planet,” will be about 47 million miles from Earth— okay, it may sound like a long way — and it is, technically. Yet this is the closest the planets have been in over ten years! This close connection will illuminate Mars, making it brighter than it has been in the past decade. Usually Jupiter is the brightest planet, second to the moon. Jupiter is brighter (though it’s farther from the sun) due to it being 20 times bigger in diameter than Mars.
Earth and Mars are about to get very cozy https://t.co/8A8CUGVNwu
— TIME.com (@TIME) May 29, 2016
According to NASA, the best time to see an illuminated Mars in the United States is around midnight (Eastern time). Mars will appear reddish and will be the brightest thing you will see in the southeastern sky. Mars can also be viewed during the morning with a telescope.
Time reports Earth will take 365 days to make one trip around the sun. For Mars, one year consists of 686.93 days. Fun fact: One Neptunian year can take up to 164.79 Earth years!
“Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can’t miss it.” Senior editor of Sky and Telescope magazine tells SPACE.com.
“Mars looks almost scary now, compared to how it normally looks in the sky.”
The exact orbit a planet makes around its parent star is fixed and known; however, these orbital speeds can tell us the distance between two planets are constantly changing. Earth can usually be seen on the complete opposite side of the sun from Mars. The distance between the Earth and Mars can expand to over 249 million miles!
Vice President of the Society for Popular Astronomy, Robin Scagell notes, “I observed it through quite a small five-inch reflecting telescope at the beginning of the month and could see a surprising amount of detail. Mars is now quite large in the sky, about 18 seconds of arc across (0.3 degrees). Mars looks very red because it’s so low in the sky, scraping the rooftops really. If you want to see some detail on Mars, you need a telescope with 75-100 times magnification. The best time to see it [Mars] is around 1am. Saturn is next to Mars at the moment and you can see the difference between the two planets. Saturn looks yellowish.”
Earth and #Mars are at their closest in 11 years on May 30. Red Planet viewing tips: https://t.co/RdSwHjfCg7 pic.twitter.com/2yV2NPo6SX
— Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers) May 27, 2016
Mars and Earth aren’t always so distant from one another. Every other year, the Earth will lap Mars and bring the planets “close” together – 33.9 million miles apart. According to Time, it is during this window that NASA will launch their missions to Mars — the closeness of the planets limits the travel time from one planet to another.
Planets are not known to orbit in a perfect, flat circle — planets are very sloppy. Most planets move above the sun’s equatorial plane during a certain point and below the sun’s plane at another point during the orbit.
Another cool highlight in space is that Mercury began transiting the sun on May 9. This tiny planets’ crossing was visible in Western Africa, Western Europe, and South America. Technically a “transit” can be considered when one astronomical body moves across another. NASAS highly recommends using a filter when viewing the sun and Mercury through a telescope!
SPACE reports that it may be a challenge to discover cool features on Mars such as clouds and its icecaps — however, many star gazers use telescopes and computer software to capture amazing images of the planet.
Get your telescopes out to watch this incredible cosmic sky show, because Mars’ unusually close pass through Earth is the first of its kind since 2005. If you’re way too busy on Memorial Day weekend to see this awesome event, Mars will be extremely visible in the sky at night during the first few weeks of June. Mars will be even closer to Earth (about 24% closer) in 2018 clocking in at 35.8 million miles apart.
Fox reports, “Back in August 2003 they were closer still: Mars and Earth were only 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from center to center. That was the nearest Earth and Mars have been in almost 60,000 years, according to NASA.”
