Mars makes closest approach to Earth in 15 years
- by Carmen Reese
- in Science
- — Aug 1, 2018
Earth's second closest planetary neighbor will look exceptionally bright tonight and into early tomorrow morning.
If you're having a good look out of the window you need to look to the southwestern sky and it should be visible low on the southwestern horizon with the moon shining to the upper left, according to Space.com.
A very thin atmosphere still exists around the planet, but it's less than one percent as dense as ours on Earth.
Mars will be closest to the Earth in a decade and a half today, on the night of July 31, 2018.
Earlier, in 2003, similar thing happened but that time, the distance between the two planets was 56 million km. We should be able to see Mars till September but it will appear smaller each passing day as it leaves the orbit closer to the Earth. That was the closest in 60,000 years, and that kind of range won't happen again until the year 2287. Last Friday, Mars was in opposition. Mars has been appearing brighter than usual since July 27, but tonight is the planet's closest approach to Earth.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) would be vital to do this, but they are not present on Mars in high enough quantities to provide any significant greenhouse warming, said Dr Bruce Jakovsky. It is visible as a bright reddish orange spot in the sky.
The last time it came so close was on August 28, 2003, when it was within 55.76 million kilometres of Earth, according to EarthSky - and that was the closest it had been in nearly 60,000 years. The next close approach, meanwhile, in 2020, will be 38.6 million miles (62 million kilometers), according to NASA.
This phenomenon is expected to occur next in 2034.
We may never see the red planet so near for another 269 years. The dust storm will engulf the surface of Mars and will be visilble mormally through a telescope. Mars, the fourth planet of the solar system, orbits the Sun at a greater distance than our planet.
One of the proposed methods of pumping more Carbon dioxide into the Red Planet's atmosphere is by bombing the planet's poles. Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory is providing a live online viewing.
