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Mars, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in August 2003. That month, the Red Planet has been close to Earth for 60,000 years.
Source: J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI) / NASA
Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in 15 years early tomorrow morning (July 31), and you can follow the historical meeting live online.
The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will broadcast a webcast of the celestial event, with expert commentary, from 1 am EDT to 5 pm EDT (5:00 am to 9:00 pm GMT, 10:00 pm to 2:00 pm) local Pacific). You can watch the show here on Space.com, courtesy of Griffith, or directly via the observatory.
You can see Mars with your own eyes before dawn on Tuesday (weather permitting) while looking at the southwestern sky. At around 4 am, Mars will be visible on the southwest horizon, the moon will shine at the top left (as shown in the map below). [Mars at Opposition 2018: How to See It and What to Expect]
The Griffith Observatory is well placed to host the visionary spectacle of Ma rs.
"By celestial coincidence, at the same time, Mars will be at its best position to look through a Los Angeles telescope, as it crosses the meridian and appears higher up in the southern sky," representatives of the observatory wrote in a statement.
If you live in the Los Angeles area, you can also attend the Griffith event in person. The grounds of the observatory will be open to the public, and small telescopes will be available for the observation of March. (These expanses will be on the lawn, the observatory building will be closed.)
The time of the closest approach occurs at 3:45 am EDT (07:45 GMT), when Mars and Earth will be separated by only 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers). The two planets have not been so tight since August 2003, when they moved less than 55.7 million kilometers from one to the other.
This 2003 meeting was really special – the closest between neighboring planets for about 60,000 years. Indeed, he came in a cosmic hair of the minimal distance Mars-Earth, which is 33.9 million miles (54.6 million km). (The maximum distance between the two planets is about 249 million miles, or 401 million km, and the average distance between them is 140 million miles, or 225 million km.)
L & # Tomorrow morning's approach follows the footsteps of Mars. "opposition." This step – when Mars, Earth and the sun align, with our planet in the middle – happened on Friday, July 27th.
March has been noticeably brighter than usual in our skies for a while, as it is getting closer and closer to the earth. But the red planet is nowhere near as big or as bright as the moon. So do not fall for this hoax, which continues to emerge despite persistent demystification efforts.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+. Published originally on Space.com
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