no one alive will ever see this again.mars. august 27. 05

MARS
from: astronomy magazine.

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will
rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m.

That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
A few other people and myself will be watching it... Glad to know you look up to the sky too, not many of my friends do.. The just think there stars or planets are mere planets... There is so much more:) Thanx for informing us all.. it's a " Once IN a Lifetime oppurtunity"... :) * smiles*
i heard about that. i should learn more so i dont miss it. me and my friends were at heidi's pies and my friend talked to some biker. he told us about the rocket launching and jupitor. something about exploding a comet so it wouldnt colide with earth. we went to a point to watch it. there was a couple there watching it too that we got to talk to. it was cold. it was late. and we didnt even get to see it. but it was fun.
Anonymous said…
So, here I was, standing outside looking for Mars. When I couldn't find it, I did more research & found that Mars actually was closest to earth that it has ever been on August 27, 2003, not 2005. This information came from NASA & other scientific websites.

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