Close Encounters Of The Mars Kind

Lab_rat0 writes "Never again in our lifetimes will the Red Planet be so spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. This article at EliteGeek has more details. According to Agg over at OCAU, this is probably the reason for all the Mars probes launched over the last few months."

Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

In case the site (or routes to the site) get slashdotted, here [martin-studio.com] is a mirror to the link.

Text

[Anonymous Coward]

Never again in our lifetimes will the Red Planet be so spectacular!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars, 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.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589
miles and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky.
It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.
At a modest 75-power magnification, Mars will look as large as the full moon to
the naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August, Mars will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
But 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 12:30 a.m.
That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human 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.

A 350 million buck Mars research grant coming

[Anonymous Coward]

The Arizona Republic was running a story yesterday ( click here [google.com] ) on scientists' hopes about getting 350 million bucks in grants for research on Mars. Interesting to see new money from NASA since its budget has been cut to pieces by the current Administration.

Re:Does this have a practical purpose?

[error502]

No, it would have had to have been launched before the date of closest approach. If you launched a probe, etc. at Mars (coming towards you), they'll meet up much sooner than if you launch on the date when Earth and Mars are actually nearest (since they're traveling towards each other). If you actually ended up launching on the day that Earth and Mars are closest, then Mars would be moving *away* from the probe shortly after launch, thus making it harder to get to.

More details

[GillBates0]

For those looking for more formal/detailed articles:

Space.com [space.com]
abc.net.au [abc.net.au]
Telescopes-Astronomy.com [telescopes...omy.com.au] - lots of details about suitable telescopes etc.

As an aside, about an earlier event fromThe Universe Today [universetoday.com]:
A rare astronomical event will occur in May 1999- Mars will be the closest it ever gets, only 52.8 million miles. In addition, the Red Planet is in opposition, which means its face is completely lit up by the Sun. Amateur astronomers will be able to see normally obscure features like the polar caps and canyons.

Maps of Mars, including dust storm

[Whitecloud]

For global views of Mars check here [nasa.gov], however at this time of year (August) Mars is enveloped in planet wide dust storms, so the view is going to be obfuscated by all that red grit...if you want to check out before and during storm pics then click here [nasa.gov].

many more pics available from the Mars Global Surveyor: Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)here [nasa.gov].

You can simulate this event in Celestia

[Jugalator]

Users of Celestia [shatters.net] (the stunning open-source galaxy simulator) can verify this and a whole lot of other space events as Mars is, at August 27, 0.373 AU from Earth. When I'm typing this, Mars seems to be 0.410 AU from Earth.

1 AU = 149,597,870.691 km

0.373 AU = 55800005 km
0.410 AU = 61335126 km

The values seem to be slightly off (by around 1%) when compared to the article's shortest distance, from the approximated planetary orbits.

I've seen it

[ralphclark]

It's fairly big already - about 20 arcseconds I should think - and I've taken a look a few times already the past few days (in my 10" F5 reflector, 4mm ultrawide plossl eyepiece, magnification about 300x). Why look now before opposition? Because it has already passed it's maximum declination in mid-to-late July, even then at about only 25 degrees above the horison where I am, and is now getting lower each night. Even at maximum elevation it was so low that atmospheric distortion mucks up the image quite badly.

In fact, although this is supposed to be the closest opposition for maybe the past 60,000 years, the low elevation means it's not really such a great observation opportunity for astronomers in the northern hemisphere. I was just about able to make out the southern polar cap and some blurred greyish surface features in the southern hemisphere.

If you live further South though, there should be some really spectacular views with Mars almost overhead. And it's so bright that you don't need a large telescope - just a good one. And an equatorial mount is a must, because the damn thing moves so fast.

for those of us without telescopes or probes...

[selderrr]

there's always the astronomy pic of the day [nasa.gov]

And for those of us with OSX, there's a macosxhints article [macosxhints.com] that helps you rotate your desktop pic with the APotD

Re:Probably?

[sniggly]

They launched em a couple of months ago so that the energy efficiency of the probes were highest so it was least expensive.

2xUS, 1 European & 1 Japanese probe.

Re:You can simulate this event in Celestia

[digitalhermit]

You can also use the program kstars, part of the KDE suite. I've only been playing with it for the past couple days but am impressed. It allows you to retrieve actual images from an observatory for any object in its database, has the obligatory constellation maps, extended info via the web for the major bodies, etc.. It doesn't allow tours through the Solar System as does Celestia, but is useful for any planetbound stargazers out there.

BTW, the RH8.0 sources build fine on RH9.

The Power of /.

[joepa]

Slashdot has just made "Close Encounters of the Mars Kind" the most read story [elitegeek.org] in the recorded history of Elite Geek (and by quite a large margin).

Re:Probably?

[twostar]

Actually the Japanese probe was launched over a year ago (can't remember the exact launch date) and suffered a engine failure. They did some orbit changes and had it swing by Earth agian before heading to Mars a second time. This time how ever it's on a free trajectory and shouldn't need much engine use. They are running extremely low on fuel though and some of the parts have begun to fail. They're not completely sure the probe will make it. But it does result in a swarm of probes heading towards Mars and hopefully will result in alot of data coming back from various parts of the planet and from orbit all at the same time which will give scientist a better overal view of the planet.

Telescope + Linux + Mars = KStars

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who are running linux and want to track Mars (among other things), you can use KStars [kde.org] to do just that. KStars with telescope control can be checked out from the CVS now.

Here is a screenshot [kde.org] showing KStars tracking the moon.

Re:Text

[Spock the Baptist]

"It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide."

This from Sky & Telescope: 'Mars becomes almost this large every 15 or 17 years -- whenever it passes closest to Earth (near opposition) within a few weeks of the date it is also nearest the Sun (perihelion). For example, in August 1971 the disk became as large as 24.9", and in September 1988 it reached 23.8". Less-ideal views come at intervals of about 2 years 2 months, as in May 1999 when it reached 16.2", and in June 2001 when it attained 20.8". Putting August 2003 in perspective, this is one of five chances (at most) in your entire lifetime that you'll see Mars so clearly.'

So this month Mars will appear some 0.21 arc-seconds larger than it did in August 1971. This is really not enough for the human eye to make a distinction. That said, you really ought to take advantage of this opposition. I know that I will.

Clear Skies
STB

Mars Society Interview

[SunPin]

In December 2001, I interviewed the Medical Director of the Mars Society for Cyberista. The story is here [cyberista.com]. Everybody in that organization is superb in their field. Dr. Czarnik was an excellent interview subject.

Mars will come within 2,400 miles

[Anonymous Coward]

of the 2003 distance in 2208, a 0.007% difference - and came within 12,000 miles in 1924, which is 0.03%, according to The Opposition Cycle Of Mars [tnni.net], by Jeffrey Beish.

Starry Night - Mars Encounter Program

[Anonymous Coward]

Starry Night has released a nice little util that tracks the approach to mars. Its pretty neat.

Runs on osX and win.

http://www.starrynight.com/MarsEncounter/

Re:Bad Joke Alert

[Mostly Harmless]

Speaking of Uranus, the bluish planet reaches opposition on August 24 in Aquarius, about 8 west of Mars. It may be possible to see it with the naked eye. Tonight (August 4), Neptune will be in opposition in Copernicus, but probably not visible without a small telescope. The full moon is the 12th, and the Perseid meteor shower peaks on the 13th, with the best viewing time around an hour or two after sunset. Enjoy!