Earth About To Get Best View Of Mars In Over A Decade
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Starting this weekend, Earth and Mars will be as close as they ever get to one another.
Alex DeMetrick reports you won't need a telescope to see it.
The Hubble Space Telescope has the best view of Mars and NASA released the newest image to coincide with something that hasn't happened in 11 years.
"There's actually something wonderful this weekend and that's the opposition of Mars. That's an ancient term in astronomy and it means Mars is on the opposite side of the sky from the sun. So as the sun is setting, Mars is rising. But in astronomy terms, that means we're actually closer to Mars in our orbit around the sun," said Dr. Michelle Thaller, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Only about 47 million miles, meaning Mars will be growing larger in the night sky before shrinking back. Hubble's link to Earth is the Goddard Space Flight Center, where people get a first look at what Hubble sees.
"It is very cool, absolutely. Hubble is astounding," said Lynn Bassford, Goddard Space Flight Center.
From the drawing board to orbit, Hubble's main mission is to seek out some of the universe's most distant objects but over the years, it has provided stunning closeups of worlds in our own neighborhood---images that led to discoveries like the one found on the largest moon in the solar system---Ganymeade---in orbit around Jupiter.
"And the Hubble Space Telescope helped us find a huge liquid water ocean under an icy crust on Ganymeade," Thaller said.
Hubble is now in its 26th year of operation and it's not about to stop anytime soon.
"Everything looks good. Everything's in great shape and it could well go into the 2030s," Bassford said.
And while we won't see Mars like Hubble, our eyes should have no trouble seeing it in the nights ahead.
The full moon may steal some of Mars' brightness but that will change in a few days as the moon begins to wane.
