Yeah...it's true, Mars is going to be a second moon of earth for a day.
The Red Planet (MARS) is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history.
The next time Mars may come this close is in Year 2287. (none of us will be there then...except for our souls..if any ;) )
Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot.
At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. by the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history.
So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I have marked my calender. I am going to look out for this one.
do u still believe that the mountains of iran has lot of parsi girls??
since when did u start star gazing ?
nasa is having fun time making people believe anything
Dear Anonymous..I think our PJ expert likes to beleive of the parsi mountain gals there :)....
btw Shawn ..or is it Sean??...i can think of the moon story of nasa not being true coz of the evidences..but i think this ones true....anyways its just a matter of few days...We'll see :)
Post a Comment