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At a distance of about 444 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth, being the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky. It is also observed to house the reflection nebula NGC 1432, an HII region. [10] Around 2330 BC it marked the vernal point.
Extra-close oppositions of Mars happen every 15 to 17 years, when we pass between Mars and the Sun around the time of its perihelion (closest point to the Sun in orbit). The minimum distance between Earth and Mars has been declining over the years, and in 2003 the minimum distance was 55.76 million km, nearer than any such encounter in almost ...
The maximum angular separation of the Earth and Moon varies considerably according to the relative distance between the Earth and Mars: it is about 25′ when Earth is closest to Mars (near inferior conjunction) but only about 3.5′ when the Earth is farthest from Mars (near superior conjunction). For comparison, the apparent diameter of the ...
While astronomers say it’s not a “perihelic opposition,” which happens every 15-17 years and only occurs when Mars is at its closest to Earth while also reaching the closest point to the sun ...
L 4 is the Sun–Earth Lagrange point located close to the Earth's orbit 60° ahead of Earth. Asteroid (706765) 2010 TK 7 is the first discovered tadpole orbit companion to Earth, orbiting L 4; like Earth, its mean distance to the Sun is about one astronomical unit.
Mars 35' north of Saturn 42.0° East August 20, 2006 22:40:10 Mercury 31' north of Saturn 11.2° West August 26, 2006 23:09:47 Venus 4' north of Saturn 16.3° West September 15, 2006 20:32:28 Mercury 10' south of Mars 12.1° East October 24, 2006 19:44:11 Venus 43' north of Mars 0.6° West October 25, 2006 21:42:16 Mercury 3°56' south of Jupiter
2.6 AU when Mars is diametrically opposed to Earth Kepler correctly characterized Mars and Earth's orbits in the publication Astronomia nova. It had been conjectured that the fixed stars were much farther away than the planets. Sun: Star 3rd century BC — 1609 380 Earth radii (very inaccurate, true=16000 Earth radii)
Relatively early in its history, Mars lost its magnetic field, which allowed the solar wind to claw away most of its atmosphere; with that, much of the water sublimed into space.