Watch Earth and Mars Closest Encounter in 11 Years
Mars and Earth are probably the best of friends among the planets in the solar system. And on Monday night, the two planets are at their closest encounter for in more than 10 years with only a distance of 47 million miles separating the two cosmic buddies. Scientists say they will remain that way until June 12.
On an average, the Red Planet is 140 million miles from Earth but the distance between them could increase to as much as 250 million miles when both of them are orbiting on the opposite sides of the sun. The closest documented encounter was back in 2003 when Earth and Mars were merely 35 million miles apart from each other, the tightest recorded hug between the two in the last 60, 000 years.
"Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can't miss it," Sky & Telescope magazine senior Alan MacRobert said in a statement as quoted in CBS News report. "Mars looks almost scary now, compared to how it normally looks in the sky."
Skygazers can enjoy watching the celestial encounter without a telescope. The Red Planet has been bright since the middle of May and may continue to do so until it starts to fade sometime in mid-June. The next close encounter with Mars will take place on July 31, 2018 when the planet is estimated to be 35 miles (57 million kilometers) away from Earth, NH Voice reported.
Meanwhile, scientists have been fascinated with the prospect of human settlement in the future with growing evidence pointing to the possibility of life on the said planet. Recent discoveries reveal signs of frozen water including minerals buried underneath its red surface.
Latest findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) also indicate that climate change is currently taking place in the planet suggesting that the Red Planet's ice age is about to end- cyclical natural occurrence with billion-long years interval, Nature World News reported.
