Mars reaches the smallest distance to Earth in the last 15 years – News



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Alex Segura Lozano

Washington, July 27 (EFE) .- Mars can be glimpsed of the Earth in the clearest of the last 15 years from 22:00 on Friday, as NASA scientist Geronimo Villanueva orbits , said to Efe: "Mars is approaching the Earth every two years, but right now, orbiting, is approaching a lot more than at other times and we can see it very bright and bigger than d & rsquo; Usual, "said Villanueva, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Center.

According to experts' calculations, Mars will be 57.6 million kilometers from Terran next Tuesday, compared to 100 million kilometers from Earth. other calendar dates.

However, people will already be able to see that night from any place in the world event.

"For this, they should turn their eyes to the Moon and, to their right , they could find a bright red orange dot – Mars – and, at té, another planet: Saturn, "says the astronomer.

The earth revolves around the sun each year (terrestrial) and Mars every two years, and it is possible to see the earth as a whole, so the two planets align and are closer than they are. ; usual.

However, the orbit of Mars is "very original", that is to say that there are times when it is farthest from the Sun and others more close to the variation of the Earth

Thus, the orbit of the red planet, one of the most irregular of the solar system, and that of the Earth align with the Sun in a synchronized manner every 15 years.

For NASA, this opportunity means a great opportunity for the Hubble Space Telescope, which operates "at its peak" since its launch in 1990.

"Hubble allows us to observe the solar system and the Outside for a long time; is a very comprehensive information platform that helps us understand, for example, how climates are changing on different planets, "explained Villanueva.

In the case of Mars, Hubble captured an image the week last where the planet

This knowledge is "very important" for the US space agency, which relies on a series of robots on the surface of Mars to analyze the

NASA has, in fact, recently lost touch with the exploratory robot "Opportunity", which uses solar panels as a source of energy.

Due to this dust storm documented by Hubble, "Opportunity" is not receive the sunlight necessary to work and hibernate until its panels are clean and the Martian atmosphere is more open.

One of the biggest objectives of all these research, is the arrival of the l & # 39; man on Mars.

When the astronaut arrives on Mars, the two planets are not aligned, so it will be necessary to wait two hours before the spacecraft arrives.

In addition to the six months back, the NASA scientist reminded that it would be necessary to build a launch pad on Mars

"We are working for that within 10 to 20 years, we can send the first man or woman to Mars, "said Villanueva. (Fbq.loaded) {var fbds = document.createElement ("script"); fbds.async = "fbd.async" true; fbds.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbds.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName ("script") [0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore (fbds, s); _fbq.loaded = true;} _ fbq.push ([“addPixelId”,”1425099884432564″]);}) (); window._fbq = window._fbq || []; window._fbq.push ([“track”,”PixelInitialized”,{}]); [ad_2]
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