Mars is now visible in the night sky, and over the coming weeks and months, it will become even brighter. This is because the two planets are edging closer to one another, and come October 6 they will be the closest they have been for more than two years.
While astronomers will use the word “close” to describe the distance between the planets, the approach also illustrates just how vast space is.
On October 6, Mars will be ‘just’ 38.57 million miles (62.07 million km) away from us – the closest it will be until 2035.
To further highlight how crazy the solar system is, by the time you finish this sentence, you will be 40 kilometres closer to Mars, according Space Weather.
The gap between our two planets is shrinking by about eight kilometres per second.
Space Weather said: “You are literally approaching the Red Planet.
“Just this week the brightness of Mars surpassed that of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
“Suddenly, Mars is almost bright enough to see in daylight and an easy target for backyard telescopes.
“The best is yet to come. By the night of closest approach on October 6 (0.4149 AU), Mars will more than double in brightness again, outshining everything in the night sky except Venus and the Moon.
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Just a week later, on October 13 Mars will be in opposition, which is where Earth is in between the Sun and the Red Planet.
This helps to highlight the duo’s elliptical orbit, as if both of their orbits were perfectly circular, the two would be closest when Mars is in opposition.
Earth Sky said: “If both the Earth and Mars circled the Sun in perfect circles, and on the same exact plane, the distance between Earth and Mars would always be least on the day of Mars’ opposition.
“But we don’t live in such a symmetrical universe. All planets have elliptical orbits and a perihelion (closest point) and aphelion (farthest point) from the Sun.
“Mars’ orbit around the Sun takes 687 days in contrast to 365 days for Earth.
“It has a year nearly twice as long as ours. Earth’s farthest point from the Sun comes yearly, in early July.
“Mars was at its closest to the Sun on March 3, 2020.
“Ever since July 4, 2020, Earth has been moving closer to the Sun; and ever since March 3, 2020, Mars has been edging away from the Sun.”