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Mars comes closer to Earth more than any other planet save Venus at its nearest—56 million km is the closest distance between Mars and Earth, whereas the closest Venus comes to Earth is 40 million km. Mars comes closest to Earth every other year, around the time of its opposition, when Earth is sweeping between the Sun and Mars. Extra-close ...
The zodiac constellations of Mars's ecliptic are almost the same as those of Earth — after all, the two ecliptic planes only have a mutual inclination of 1.85° — but on Mars, the Sun spends 6 days in the constellation Cetus, leaving and re-entering Pisces as it does so, making a total of 14 zodiacal constellations.
Mars hosts many enormous extinct volcanoes (the tallest is Olympus Mons, 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System (Valles Marineris, 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Geologically, the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, dust devils sweeping across the landscape, and cirrus clouds.
And we're about to witness Mars reaching opposition in 2025. Even though we can’t hop into a rocket and fly into the galaxy, luckily there are moments when the planets seem to reach out to us ...
Mars will seem to disappear behind the full wolf moon Monday for many sky-gazers. Throughout January, also look up to see Venus, Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky.
Aug. 10—CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mars and Jupiter are cozying up in the night sky for their closest rendezvous this decade. They'll be so close Wednesday, at least from our perspective, that ...
The existence of Mars as a wandering object in the night sky was recorded by ancient Egyptian astronomers. By the 2nd millennium BCE they were familiar with the apparent retrograde motion of the planet, in which it appears to move in the opposite direction across the sky from its normal progression. [ 2 ]
Mars will reach opposition on Dec. 8, making Thursday night one of the best nights of 2022 to see the planet glow in the sky. Opposition is when Mars is on the opposite Thursday night will be best ...