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Science Mars is BIG and RED for its close encounter with Earth
Science Mars is BIG and RED for its close encounter with Earth | Mars is BIG and RED for its close encounter with Earth |
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| Written by William Atkins | |
| Friday, 23 November 2007 | |
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Look into the eastern sky about 2-3 hours after sunset on Monday, November 26, 2007, and watch the pair move into the western sky throughout the night until they approach the horizon just before dawn on Tuesday, November 27. During the past month, planet Mars, the fourth planet away from the Sun, has increased in brightness as it comes closer to the Earth. In fact, it has nearly doubled in brightness, making it easily visible in the night sky as a bright, red point of light. If you use a small telescope, Mars will appear reddish over most of its surface due to its reddish colored terrain, but will look bluish at its northern pole, due to sunlight hitting crystals of ice in the cold atmosphere. In addition, if you look at Mars for long enough you’ll see that the planet is traveling in an (apparent) retrograde motion (backward movement, reverse of usual motion of space bodies). It has been doing this reverse motion since November 15, 2007, and will continue to do so until January 31, 2008. On Monday night, take a look outside in the eastern sky at about 10 p.m. local time. You’ll see a full silvery Moon move past the red Mars. The pair will be inside the constellation Gemini, and just west of Orion’s Belt. They will continue to move upward in the sky during the night. Around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the pair will be at the highest point in the sky. At about dawn, they will be descending in the western sky, and at daybreak will be close to the horizon. See the sky maps for November 26 (10 p.m. local time) and November 27 (5 a.m. local). If you think Mars is bright now, just wait until December 18, 2007, when Earth and Mars are even closer together! This apparent retrograde motion across the sky is due to the fact that Mars is further out in its orbit around the Sun than is the Earth. Thus, the Earth completes one orbit about the Sun faster than does Mars. In doing so, it “catches” up with Mars. At one point Earth is behind Mars in its orbit, but later catches up with the planet and passes it, causing what appears to be a reversal of directions for Mars. {moscomment}
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