Get ready for a rare event, the likes of which has not occurred since 60 thousand years: the planet Mars will be the closest summer to us
Avi Blizovsky
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/marsrover300503.html
Storms at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida forced NASA to postpone for the third time the launch of a rocket carrying the first of two vehicles destined for Mars, with the aim of investigating whether water exists in Earth's neighbor. At the time of writing these lines, the postponement is for Tuesday evening 10/6.
The first postponement was from Friday to Sunday to allow more time for testing, then the launch was postponed to Monday due to severe weather in Florida and now it has been postponed again, because the weather has not yet improved.
The launch, on a Delta II rocket manufactured by Boeing, was postponed until the evening, Monday (9/6/2003).
The second vehicle should be launched later this month and both should reach Mars in January. Last week, as you remember, the first European space vehicle to Mars - Mars Express, was successfully launched, carrying also a spacecraft that will land on the planet - Beagle 2.
Mars and Earth - closest in 60 thousand years
Dr. Noah Brosh, Ma'ariv
Mark your diaries: on August 27, the planet Mars will be just less than 56 million km from Earth - its closest distance since 60 years. In other words: the appearance of Mars at the end of August/beginning of September this year will be the best since the intelligent man appeared on earth!
Due to this close proximity, Mars will be extremely bright. In relatively simple telescopes it will be possible to distinguish coarse details on its surface.
The reason for the spectacular show: a relatively rare coincidence: Mars will then be closest to the Sun and will also be in "contrast" to the Sun, that is: the Sun, the Earth, and Mars will then line up in one line.
The planets orbit the sun in elliptical orbits. Regarding the Earth and Mars, the deviation in the shape of the orbit from a circle is small, but measurable. Due to the elliptical motion, each planet is sometimes closer to the Sun and sometimes, further away from it. When the planet is close to the sun, it receives a greater flux of radiation than usual, so it reflects more light into space. Part of the reflected light reaches the earth, so the planet will appear brighter to the terrestrial observer at that time. The smaller the distance between the planet and the sun, and the smaller the distance between it and the earth, the brighter the planet will appear.
This year Mars is close to the Sun and the Earth is further away from it, but the Earth recedes from Mars in its orbit around the Sun, so that the distance between the two planets is getting smaller.
Another phenomenon is related to the apparent size of Mars. The smaller the distance between it and the earth, the larger it appears to the observer on the ground. Therefore, details on the surface of this planet will be discernible, even with a simple amateur telescope. The more stable the air, the more details will be visible. Also, it will be possible to easily notice the rotation of Mars around itself, if the observations of it are carried out over several hours.
The day on Mars is very similar to that of Earth, therefore the distance of the details of the landscape on its surface will change continuously. From the end of May to August, Mars turns from a morning star, shining only in the wee hours of the night, to an evening star, which can be easily distinguished. At the same time, its brightness increases 14 times than normal, and its apparent angular diameter increases three times.
Although the approaches between the Earth and Mars occur every 26 months, this year is particularly good due to the coincidence
This rare.
In light of the upcoming event - and also because last week the first of three planned spacecraft was launched to Mars
For this month's launch (2 American and one European, which has already been launched) we will focus your attention from now until August 27
Those interested in various phenomena related to Mars.
NASA is delaying the launch of the first of the two all-terrain vehicles to Mars by another few days
30/5/2003
The purpose of the postponement is to carry out additional tests so that it does not
The problem of the loss of the two spaceships from 1999 will return again
The launch of the first of the two all-terrain vehicles designed to serve as robotic field geologists on Mars has been postponed a few days to June 8 to allow more time for operational tests of the spacecraft.
The announcement constitutes the second postponement of the launch of the vehicle, which was already delayed by eight days until June 6.
The new delay will allow analyzes of the experiments carried out on the spacecraft in Florida to be completed for re-examination, said Peter Theisinger, Mars Rover Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The first vehicle, MER-A, will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on a Delta II booster. The second vehicle, MER-B is scheduled for launch on June 25. They will reach Mars in January. Before them, the European Mars Express spacecraft will be launched, probably on June 2, which also carries the Beagle 2 lander inside.
NASA stepped up testing of its missions to Mars after losing two spacecraft in 1999. The Climate Orbiter flew too close to the Martian surface due to errors between English and metric measurements, and the Mars Fuller Lander crashed after its booster rockets stopped working.
Both rovers were designed to operate as a field geologist in search of evidence of past water activities on Mars.
Well, this article is from 15 years ago, but the truth -
Just yesterday evening I saw in the southeast sky a huge and reddish Mars as I had never seen before.
It looks to me as big as Jupiter (to the naked eye) and for the first time I was also able to see that it is indeed reddish in color.
So far, he has always seemed like a normal little star to me…
(Yes, I know - there is no such thing as a 'normal little star'...).
One response
Well, this article is from 15 years ago, but the truth -
Just yesterday evening I saw in the southeast sky a huge and reddish Mars as I had never seen before.
It looks to me as big as Jupiter (to the naked eye) and for the first time I was also able to see that it is indeed reddish in color.
So far, he has always seemed like a normal little star to me…
(Yes, I know - there is no such thing as a 'normal little star'...).