As we know, Mars is an outer planet and it orbits the Sun in twice the time of Earth. About every two years, our Earth catches up and overtakes it, the consequence is the retrograde movement of the planet, which gave ancient astronomers a headache when they did not know how to explain it. all kinds of celestial models hoping to explain it. Then people solved the problem by pushing Earth out of the center of the solar system, which was just an apparent projection of Mars onto the sky.
Next May, the distance between Earth and Mars will be shortened when the trio Mars, Earth and Sun will be in a relatively upright position. It will be closest to Earth on May 30, 2016, the distance will then be approximately 0.5 Au (~ 75,000,000 km). The notion of ambivalent position is often assimilated to the closest phenomenon. This statement is not completely false, but sometimes the ambivalent position is not the closest position. Like this time Earth and Mars are closest to each other but they are not in opposite position and are a little bit away from that position because their orbit is not a perfect circle but an ellipse.
There is one thing that should interest you more than this insignificant numerical distance: during the days of May 15 to 23, the Moon plus Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will appear in the sky. it was before midnight. The appearance of these luminous celestial bodies will dazzle the eyes. This is a great opportunity for you to capture the photos of your life.
Photo: http://mars.nasa.gov
comments
comments
