The bright red twin reaches its closest point to the Earth

This is a known fact but it does not stop having relevance. And it is that no matter how much man has scientifically tracked the oppositions of Mars to the Sun, this opportunity presents a certain singularity: it also comes with the closest distance that the red planet will have to the Earth.

"From the point of view of us here on Earth, the Mars planet will be at the opposite of the Sun, that is to say, when it starts to get dark, Mars will come out at night. Then hiding the sun and leaving Mars, so the planet will see all night, "Carlos Quintana, academic coordinator of the Humboldt Planetarium in Caracas, describes in a simple way.

wait until at first glance the red planet shines in the sky more brilliantly than Jupiter, but not as bright as Venus.His most visible face will be the South Pole as it is tilted towards Earth.

Quintana clarifies that in fact the oppositions of Mars occur every 26 months.But on July 27, at 1:07 am, it is the best that has happened since 2003.

Regarding the distance to our planet, four days later, the so-called "twin of the Earth" "will record the minimum. On July 31, at 6 and 50 minutes from dawn, it will reach 57,600,000 kilometers, or about 2 million kilometers more than in 2003, when it was the smallest known for centuries.

"For several days, Mars has increased its brightness and left earlier.The closer you get to the opposition, the sooner you will break out in the East." And the day of the opposition will be when he will leave sooner, "says Quintana, who is also a member of the Venezuelan Star Trek Club, a group of lovers and followers of astronomy.

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This phenomenon will be more easily perceptible in the southern hemisphere, with binoculars and amateur telescopes, much to the delight of those living in South America, Southern Africa and Oceania.

"This is the gift that there is for all these days, "says proudly this lover of astronomy.

The Roman god of war accompanied by four other gods

But there is more, all these nights you can see other planets, as long as the sky is clear.

"In addition to Mars, we can see Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. The only planet that will be difficult to find will be Mercury, because it is closer to the Sun, close to the horizon, "explains Quintana.

He states that "if we see the horizon, towards the west, where the Sun is hidden, we will find Venus, luminous and Mercury with more difficulty in the approach from the horizon.If you look higher, higher, you will find Jupiter.But if you look to the east, halfway up, Saturn will be, although it does not stand out as much because it's less vivid than Jupiter.And from 8 pm you can see Mars stitching across the eastern horizon. "

(Credit: NASA Authorization) [19659008] On the eve of the most remarkable Martian phenomenon, the Humboldt Planetarium has a special Weekend Watch Week Programming and more information on what to do is on their social networks (@ planethumboldt and PlanetarioHumboldtOficial on Facebook), because as Carlos Quintana emphasizes to all the curious in the sky: "live the experience of contemplating the starry sky com you can rarely do it and enjoy Nature in its greatest expression … the Universe ".

Humboldt Planetarium: 57 years look at the Universe

Founded on July 24, 1961, the Humboldt Planetarium (@planethumboldt) will celebrate next Tuesday at the age of 57 years.

Part of his educational work, promoting the study and teaching of astronomy, astronautics and sciences such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, geography and earth sciences, the institution has organized a special program.

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Begins on Thursday the 26th at 16:00. with the lectures "The Humboldt Planetarium" and "Alejandro de Humboldt", in honor of the scientist from whom it takes its name.

Friday 27th and Saturday 28th will be his "Nights of the Stars", starting at 17:00. with the theme "March 2018"; at 18:00 goes "Water on Mars" and will close from 19:00 to 21:00. with Observation with telescopes of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and other celestial objects visible at this period.

On Saturday the 28th regular public functions will be referred to Mars and there will be titles like "On the Notch of Curiosity", "Martian Storms" and "The Private Exploration of Mars", among others.