Mars Will Loom Large And Near This Month

This month, the Martians are coming close - if they exist! Their home, the Red Planet, will make its closest approach to Earth in ten years. NASA said that sky-watchers can enjoy a celestial show from dusk to dawn beginning this week.

In the night of May 30, you can spot Mars looming large. It looks like a bright, fire-yellow, star-like object.

"Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can't miss it," Sky & Telescope magazine editor Alan MacRobert said.

If your skies are clear, you can see it upfront without even a telescope or binoculars.

The alignment of the third planet from the sun---our very own earth---and Mars---the fourth one, occurs after every 26 months.

US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a photograph of Mars shot by the Hubble Space Telescope even as it came near a week ago. Detailed images show polar caps and clouds above the rust-like Martian landscape.

Mars even then will be located 46.8 million miles away.

The distance between Earth and Mars could be 250 million miles even as they keep changing their positions while they circle around the sun.

It was in August 2003 that Earth and Mars were even closer, just 35 million miles (56 million km) apart, mainly due to the planets' rather oval-shaped orbits around the sun.

To see the two planets so close to each other, it will take you only another 300 years.