Mid-Valley Skies: Mars: Fourth Rock of the Sun | Lifestyle

This month an unusual astronomical event occurs: a near approach to Mars, the fourth planet of the sun. Named for the Roman god of war, this blood-red world occupies a permanent place in the human imagination.

As a place of many science fiction and fantasy stories, Mars has remarkable similarities to our own planet. The Martian day is only 40 minutes longer. Its axial inclination is two degrees lower than that of the Earth. It has extinct volcanoes, deserts, dunes, cbads, dust storms and polar ice caps that grow and shrink with varying seasons.

At the same time, Mars is a very different planet. While its diameter is about half of the Earth, its year is about twice as long as its four seasons. Instead of a big moon, its two tiny moons are Phobos (fear), only 14 miles in diameter and Deimos (terror), only 8.

Mars is cold. Further away from the sun, the planet's surface receives only 43 percent of the sunlight we enjoy here on Earth. The average temperature is -80 ° F compared to our mild +57 ° F. The depths of the Martian winter can be as cold as -280 ° F, more than 175 ° colder than dry ice! It's cold enough for Antarctica to look like Miami Beach!

Mars is dry and his air is thin. The surface air pressure is less than 1% of the Earth. In addition to the Martian atmosphere being thin and impenetrable, its composition is 96 percent carbon dioxide (CO2). It is, however, thick enough for the wind to stack fine dust in the dunes, raise swirls of dust in its pink sky and even shake the global dust storms, whose obscurity features the surface from near of one month [19659003] Every two years, the orbits of the Earth and Mars align them with the sun, a geometry called "opposition". Every 15 or 17 years, at an opposition where Mars is also closer to the sun in its orbit (perihelion), it is also closest to the Earth. In the night of July 30 to 31 only 36 million miles separate us, the closest since 2003. Although the red planet, at 4,220 miles in diameter, is twice the size of our moon, it is 150 times further away, and requires a telescope to distinguish it from a bright star.

A virtual rain of robotic spaceship was sent to its red surface, each asking the question, "Is there life on Mars?" Nevertheless, the answer remains "maybe". were able to exclude progressively less sophisticated organisms, apparently leaving only microbes as the last possible form of life on Mars.

In the absence of oceans, the area of ​​the red planet is about the same as that of the Earth. If we were to colonize it, Mars would literally be a "New World".

The Heart of the Astronomers of the Valley is a group of amateur astronomers who are dedicated to sharing our pbadion for heaven with the local community. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month (July 10th at 7:00 pm) at the Walnut Community Room, 4950 NW Fair Oaks Drive in Corvallis. Meetings are free and open to everyone. For more information, visit www.hvaastronomy.com, or visit us on Facebook.

If you weigh 180 pounds on Earth how much would you weigh on Mars?

Reply The first woman in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who performed 48 orbits around the Earth in the Vostok 6 spacecraft, from June 16 to 19, 1963.