Planet Mars- The red planet as never seen before
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Close encounter.
We are normally so intrigued and occupied with daily life, and miss the wonder of the universe. Soon we are going to experience a phenomena, which none of us alive today, will ever see again.
Mars is going to be her best spectacular self, in this month of August 2010. In our recorded history, we will find that Earth and Mars was never as close to each other, than they will be now.
The estimations are that on the 27th of August 2010, Mars will come within 34,649,589 miles from our planet. At this distance, she will be as bright as our moon.
Where to look.
She will not be difficult to find. From the beginning of August, Mars will rise in the east at about 10pm to reach her azimuth at 03h00 am. As she grows bigger and more spectacular towards the end of August, she will rise at nightfall to reach the highest point at about 12h30 am
Magnitude scale.
The brighter an object in the sky, the more in the negative variant it will be measured. Less than zero can be seen with the naked eye, and do not need a telescope to locate.
She will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide with a magnitude of -2.9.
It is speculated that Mars has never been this close for at least the past 5000 years, and it might happen again only in so much as the next 60 000 years.
Specs.
Facts about Mars:
Radius 3397.20 km
Distance from the sun 227 940 000.00km
Period of rotation: 24.62 hours
Period of orbit 686.98 days
Satelites: 2
Relationships ( They say men come from Mars)
Be prepared.
This is a show not to be missed, That day, we will carry grandma and babies outside, to behold the day we will see two "moons". Indeed something to look forward to!
Now is the time to go buy that new camera!
Where does this facts coming from?
As a matter of fact this rumour had been send around for more than four years consecutively now. People do sit on rooftops and wait in vain. Two years ago, some people saw an eclipse for the effort.
Checking the website of space.com, we see Mars in the news. They tell us of a spot called Nilli Fossae, that could be a place where life existed 4 billion years ago.
We also learn that the beloved Mars Rover Spirit, hibernating since March this year, will most probably die now. Sad news and newsworthy. But.... where was the origin of this two moons, and why?
The real astronomy news for August.
A date to mark is 12 August, if you want to encounter a strong meteor shower with no bright moon. This is the date of the Perseid showers.
Our moon will also pay a visit to almost all the planets.
Listed below are the dates and the planet which our moon will pass on that date:
01st August passing Saturn ; 11th August passing Mercury; 13th August passing Saturn, Venus and Mars ; 23rd August passing Mars again ; 24th August passing Neptune and on the 27th of August passing Uranus and Jupiter.
Well at least there are a "two" and "moon" and "Mars" connected, but not as the rumour would want it to be. The moon will pass Mars twice this month- thats all!
Stargazing is stil fun to do. If we keep on looking, perhaps one day we will actually see Mars as big as the size of the moon. I suppose, we will have a "floating" moment or two in such an situation!
Pictures: Courtesy fotosearch.com
Did you received any mail concerning two moons for this year?
See results without votingNew entry:The Meteor shower is here:
As I have written, the expected shower has arrived. Follow this link to read more:
- Perseid Meteor Shower Unleashes Bright Fireball - Yahoo! News
The Perseid meteor shower is peaking this week and announced its annual August arrival with a bright fireball over Alabama, NASA officials say.
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Mike, I think I would rather wait for the meteors, as I think with the darkness we will see a good show. Thanks for the visit.
i really love astronomics..i wish all my friends along with u and all the people whom i know,my parents, my love would spend a night on Mars which is pollution free and peaceful.
god bless u
vydyulashashi. What a lovely idea to connect Mars with such a beautiful wish.
So after all the jokers who has started the false rumour about Mars coming so close to earth, did achieved one thing. Though we will not see it, as it is a hoax, we will dream it!
Thus in the end we are getting enriched by thinking a bit out of the box.
I love your comment, and your positive attitude.
I found this hub to be fascinating. We will be camping in the back country of Arizona on the night of August 27th and will look for Mars above Keet Seel Anasazi site.
Wow, this is really interesting. And Mars is my planet! :-) (Aries) Going to set my alarm clock.
juneaukid When you do your camping trip, please please, take lots of pics and make a hub. I would love to share in the experience. Mars will be normal on that day, as any other day. The magnitude of Mars was actually -2.9 on the 02nd of August from my location, and tonight it is 1.1
If we will see Mars as big as the moon, I think the gravity pull will lift us from our seats, or something like that.
But back to your camp, on the night of the 27th, I will lift a glass of dry red, (because Mars is dry and red) and think of you. We will call it our Hubbers Mars night, even though the Mail going around about it, is a hoax.
I am serious about the hub, I do not think I will ever be able to visit Arizona, and the only way I will experience it, is by reading and seeing the photos.
Martie, it will be better to sleep, Mars will be normal, or you can join the club who will drink a glass of dry red- see my above comment-
I want to see the meteor shower on the 12th, because the moon will be in a darker mood, and the clarity of the shower will be very spectacular to see.
Aries, you say- same as my mom. Now I will understand you better!
You had me going for a while there until you mentioned the rumour that started four years ago. I remember getting e-mails about this a while back and was invited to a couple of sky watching evenings before we found out it was a hoax.
Still, I like the idea of sharing a dry red with you on the 27th especially as I too am an Aries.
Karanda: Thats a date! Perhaps if we all send enough love to Mars on the 27th, the beloved Rover will receive a few gracious sunrays, just enough to restart her batteries.
Then she will be able to continue her exploration, and send us more discoveries of our neighbour planet!
There's nothing like a good view of the Red Planet in the Summer Evening Sky!!!
Team STM: So you like watching the sky at night as well. Every time I see something new in my horizon, I call the kids to show them, Even if the universe existed long before us humans did, it will never stop to intrigue and amaze us.
Thank you for taking time to comment.
This is just so cool. I'm marking my calendar now, let's see how it goes. Can't wait.
Hubpageswriter. Hope you mark the calender for the 12th, as this is the date of the shower. The 27th will be a normal Mars day, except for the hubbers that want to join for the "dry, red" toast to Mars. Hope you join!
Excellent writing, I almost would of sat on a chair with my camara that night and wait for that moment, then I realized if Mars had to be that close to Earth there would of been a lot of caos.
Good writing again, people often don't read carefully, like myself, thinking I must keep my camara ready. :-)
Nando's Yep, you are sure right about that, and I agree, Mars will cause havoc on earth if she ever come so close to earth. Don't think there will be time to take that photo, if you are running away for a tidal wave or an earthquake!
Be sure not to miss the meteor shower on the 12th.
Great article equealla. An interesting point to note that the efforts for the search of extraterrestrial life reached an all time high after Percival Lowell described the canals on Mars as irrigation systems built by martians in 1910. He became an instant 'astronomical' superstar..LOL
Read about his interesting theories here:
stunnercold, I liked the article, as it gave me insight into a part of our involvement of this fascinating planet.
I will never scorn people like Percival. My opinion is they are great thinkers that dare to think outside the box, stimulating interesting debate. I do admire them for having the courage to declare what they believe could be true, and diligently work on their theory to expand the existing knowledge.
By the way, I do not think we can for sure say there had never been life on Mars. Our universe existed gazillions of years before we appeared. How would we know what became beforehand?
But that is the arrogance of the human mind, I suppose. We want to believe we are the most intelligent beings in this enormous, vast and ever expanding existing space.
Hidden inside of us, will allways be the questions of "the what is beyond" This is one of the driving forces for man, to ever explore, discover and investigate. Without this kind of drives, our existence will be non significant and without purpose.
I just love comments like yours, because it is debatetable and makes great conversation.
I do appreciate your visit and interesting link.
hi again equealla, have you written anything about the shoemaker levy collision?
stunnerscold Oh my, no. I am too new in the writersworld, and I must admit, the ideas and the time is just not compatible.
I have a lot of other things going, whilst maintaining a full time profession as well, helping the kids with their studies, helping my husband with administration, and managing the estate of a retired lady, as well ahve full responsibility for her health and wellbeing.
I have seen your author skills, and have noticed your well researched outlays. I was just wondering, will you not be so kind as to publish something on this topic for us.
I am sure you will be able to do a much better job than me. I will look forward to read it.
Very cool, and certainly something not to be missed! Thank you for this great and informative hub!
MCWebster So nice to see you here. I surely do hope all will be able to see the show.
Thank you for the comment.
Thanks for this - I did some searching for this on the internet and found the following: "Here's what will really happen if you go outside after dark on August 27th. Nothing. Mars won't be there. On that date, the red planet will be nearly 250 million km away from Earth and completely absent from the evening sky."
As you say, this rumour apparently started in 2003 when there really was a close (about 56 million miles!) encounter between Mars and Earth!
Great article and sorry I seem to have missed the meteor showers!
Love and peace
Tony
Tony, Thank you for this info. I was actually not giving it much thought. I allready stated above that the visibility is getting less from my position, but not thinking further than the tip of my nose.You are right, if it is moving away, it will be invisible by that date.
I was very anxious to see the shower myself, but was doing some night work in the community, and had no opportunity to go outside. Will wait for next year, as it is coming anually.
I can at least say I have seen it once in the equator in all it's brilliance. It was almost like daylight. It also happened that one of the meteors hit the ocean right in front of our eyes. It was awesome!
Awesome hub! Astronomy has always fascinated me, and Mars in particular, because of the buzz about the possibility of living there I suppose. I missed the meteor showers, but hoping to catch them next year too!
BennyTheWriter, I barely visited your site and you are allready here, fast as ligthning. I would say. No wonder the "sky-things" intrigue you. lol
Ya, pity I have missed it, I was looking forward to it for a while now. But like I said, we'll catch it next year.
Thanx for the visit and comment.
I WILL WATCH THE ORANGE MARS AND WON'T LET GO.I CAN'T WAIT.
Tharveen So kind of you to drop by and comment. I suppose if we will ever see something like it, we will not be able to ever forget it.
Thanks for the information, we the people in Ukraine here will just wait for this wonderful natural phenomenon to occur. It will really be a wonderful experience.
Great hub equealla
Dchosen Indeed it will, if it happens, but I also think it will be our last experience. Mars so close to earth will have a gravitational pull, which will give us an very " uplifting" experience, indeed.lol
Thanx for the comment and the visit. So much appreciated.
Hi, wow I didn't know this, and I am mad at my brother now for not telling me! lol he is a mad astronomer, so he should have been on the ball there! I tried to see the perseid meteor shower but as usual it was cloudy! maybe I can still see mars, i am going to take a look now! cheers nell
Hi, back again! Yes! I can see it! I opened my balcony door and there it is, and it is very bright. I usually can see it at this time of year but not so clearly! thanks for that, I can tell my brother now that I got there first! ha ha thanks nell
Nell I love your sense of humour. Twenty times bigger than dearest Mars himself...
For tonight, 30th August 2010, from my tiny spot in Africa I have a magnitude of 1.2, meaning it is more difficult to see than a month ago. It will also only set at 06h28am --- Spoilsport!
Must say, I enjoy your company much more than that of this planet!
Wonderful hub and so informative.
I love astronomy, god's creation, thanks for this hub.
Mike Lickteig Level 3 Commenter 22 months ago
I love astronomy and I thank you so much for the heads-up. I will definitely try to catch the spectacle with Mars this month. Thanks for writing about this.
Mike