New Delhi: Come July 31 and you will witness Mars and Earth be closest to each other for the first time in 15 years since their last approach being in 2003. The red planet will be at a distance of 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) from Earth. Mars will reach its highest point at around midnight – it will be around 35 degrees above the southern horizon or one-third of the distance between the overhead and horizon. The red planet will be visible for much of the night. The last instance of such occurrence was in 2003 than back in some 60,000 years, and right now it’s now only slightly farther from Earth now than then.

The encounter on July 31 will be a close one between the two planets until around the time of the Martian opposition on September 15, 2035. During their encounter, Mars and the Sun will be on directly opposite sides of Earth. From our side on our spinning world, Mars rises in the east at a time when the sun sets in the west. After rising, it stays up in the sky the entire night and starts setting in the west at a time when the sun rises in the east. As Mars and the Sun appear opposite sides of the sky, we can call that Mars is in “opposition”. If Earth and Mars are to follow perfectly circular orbits, the opposition would get close to each other as the two planets could get.

But in mid-August, the Red Planet will become fainter due to the fact that the Earth and Mars travel farther away from each other following their orbits around the Sun. Since July 7, Mars has been the brightest and will continue for some days to be so until September 7. It will be shining brighter than Jupiter, which in general, shines as the brightest in the sky only after Venus.

Another interesting fact is that the longest “blood moon” eclipse of this century also coincided with Mar’s closest approach on Friday to allow sky gazers an opportunity of a thrilling astronomical double bill.

Mars can easily be seen with the naked eye in the evening time. If you don’t find an opportunity to watch the Red Planet this time, then you can find it again very close to the earth on October 6, 2020. So find this opportunity tommorrow instead of waiting for 2020.

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