The Cosmic Chronicle #3
This edition of Cosmic Chronicle spotlighted Mars’ close approach and its spectacular opposition.
Hi ,
Waltzing into your inbox with yet another issue of the Cosmic Chronicle! This week is all about Mars!
Why Mars? Well, on January 12, Mars reached its closest point to Earth for this opposition. Every two years, Mars reaches opposition, which is where it’s at the exact opposite point from the sun. During opposition, Mars rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and has its entire disk illuminated by the Sun, making it an excellent time for observation.
Near every opposition, Mars also comes the closest to Earth. However, not all closest approaches are created equal. Some are closer than others! On January 12, Mars was at a distance of 96.08 million kilometres (59.7 million miles or 5.3 light minutes). For comparison, this is farther than the closest approaches of 2018 (57.59 million km) or 2022 (81.45 million km), but it’s closer than the closest approach of 2027 (97.24 million km). This closest approach won’t be beaten until 2033 (82.7 million kilometres). However, all of these fade in front of the closest approach of 2003, when Mars was only 55.76 million kilometres away! At that time, Mars was closer than it had been in some 60,000 years and won’t be this close until August, 2287.
So, how do you spot Mars? You can easily spot Mars with your naked eyes as a bright red “star” in the east sky every evening. It is close to the bright stars Castor and Pollux this entire month.
Mars will be at opposition on January 16, when it’ll reach magnitude -1.4, the same as Sirius.
What’s in the sky this week?
Monday, January 13
Year’s first full moon. It’s also called the “Wolf Moon.” For observers in the US, Mexico, Southeast Canada and Western Africa, the full moon will occult (cover) Mars. The timing depends on your location.
Tuesday, January 14
Observers in the western US can see Saturn’s moon Rhea being occluded by Saturn. The moon will disappear behind Saturs’s northwestern limb around 6:50 PM PST and come out around 8:27 PM PST.
Thursday, January 16
Mars reaches its opposition at around 8:30 am IST! Depending on your location, this might very well be January 15 for you.
Astronomy news
This February will mark a fascinating era of astronomical research. Scientists have equipped the Subaru Telescope with a new Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS). This instrument contains about 2500 prisms and is slated to begin operating this February. It can perform simultaneous spectroscopic observations of thousands of objects. Read more about it here.
That’s all for this week. Before you close this edition, please take a moment to provide a rating.
Excellent !!! So informative 👏