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Although sky observers can easily enjoy the bright views of Mars this summer, there are also intriguing developments beneath its dusty surface.
Mars will be 35.8 million miles from Earth on Monday, which is closest to our two planets. since 2003.
The close approach means that it appears bigger and brighter in the sky every night than usual.
As long as there are no clouds, the best views of Mars will be after 22h or 22h30. According to Justin Bartel, director of the immersive experiment at the Science Museum of Virginia
"The great rumor on the Internet is that it sounds as big as the moon in the sky, which, of course, does not matter. will never happen, says Bartel.
This is not a moon, but Mars will be the most visible planet to the naked eye once our most beautiful neighbor Venus goes to bed earlier in the evening.
Unlike an eclipse or a meteor shower, it's not a show that requires a lot of effort or concentration to appreciate it.
Mars will be brighter than Jupiter in the sky at the end of the evening next month
As summer falls, Mars becomes darker, farther away than the Earth runs faster around the sun.
The headlines closest to years are mostly split hair when it comes to what you would see from your garden.
Ma rs is usually this good show every 26 months when it is in opposition, which means that for the moment it gets up when the sun goes down and vice versa.
Well beyond the reach of telescopes, a ground-penetrating radar on the European Mars Express satellite has for the first time found liquid water beneath the surface of Mars. Last week, European researchers announced the discovery of the salt lake 12 miles wide about 1 mile from the dust and ice of its south pole
Mars has frozen water in the ice caps . at least a portion in liquid form.
This is an alluring new, but it would take a lot more investigation to find out if this water supports life.
A NASA spacecraft called InSight is expected to arrive on the surface of Mars on the 26th.
Although it does not land over this cold, buried lake, it will have some tools to help scientists better understand the underground conditions of the planet.
Putting the Planets in Local Perspective
To make sense of planetary positions in a more manageable way, we can imagine a model at a distance. Richmond Ladder
If a typical globe on a desk at the Richmond Times-Dispatch headquarters represents the size of the Earth, the sun would be a brilliant 117-foot-diameter orb that dominates Byrd Park, about half the height of the Carillon tower.
The concentric orbits of the rocky interior planets are inscribed primarily in the city of Richmond, while the larger gaseous giants like Jupiter circulate farther in the center and east of Virginia.
Mars would be 6.8 inches in comparison, like a rust-colored melon.
If we positioned Mars as it would be on July 31, Still further from the sun, but within walking distance of the Earth.
Only 1.5 km from the downtown office globe, there is our miniature Mars near the east side of the Leigh Street viaduct
at their largest separation, as they will be at the end of # August 2019, the distance would then be 6.35 miles on the model
With the sun still at Byrd Park, we would find the Earth near Virginia Union University and Mars well in front of the James River Beyond Chippenham Hospital
The next time Earth returns to Mars in October 2020, the two planets will no longer be so close.
This is because both orbits are slightly inclined and elliptical.
On our small model, we would add the distance value of a football field to approach in 2020 compared to 2018.
It takes almost twice as much time in March to surround the sun, which is why the next approach closer would also find our model planets in different neighborhoods as before.
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