Anyone who tries to pin their eyes to their telescope and look at the night sky over the next few weeks will not find the familiar reddish glow of Mars. Where has our red neighbor gone? We used Forefront to find out.
Every two years, the orbits of Mars and Earth around the Sun result in the two planets positioning on opposite sides of the Sun. When this occurs, Mars' position in the sky is too close to the Sun so that it is "swallowed" by its glare and becomes invisible.
This year, Mars reached its opposite position around the Sun yesterday (Saturday), November 18. On this date, Mars and the Sun appeared only one degree apart in the constellation Libra when viewed from Earth. When the Sun's intense light overcame the light reflected off Mars, the star disappeared from telescopes on Earth.
Mars is not only currently invisible – its distance from us is also at its peak. The two planets, which are usually at an average distance of 225 million kilometers from each other, will soon be almost twice as far, nearly 380 million kilometers apart.
Astronomers estimate that Mars will remain invisible until late December or early January, when it will move far enough away from the sun's aurora to show its red face again.
But it's not just astronomers who will miss Mars in the coming months; The celestial event also disrupts the communication of space agencies such as NASA, probes exploring the Red Planet. Signals to and from Mars are disrupted by the Sun's ionized plasma during this time. To avoid potential mistakes, NASA suspends commands for its Mars instruments for several weeks.
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