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The Opposition of Mars – April 2014
Source: ScienceAtNASA
Earth and Mars are converging for a beautiful close encounter in April, an event astronomers call “the opposition of Mars.”
By the time you finish reading this story, you’ll be about 1,000 km closer to the planet Mars.
As March gives way to April, the distance between the two planets is shrinking by about 300 km every minute. When the convergence ends in mid-April, the gulf between Earth and Mars will have narrowed to only 92 million km–a small number on the vast scale of the solar system.
Related article: http://earthsky.org/space/mars-opposition-happens-this-month-its-really-easy-to-see?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=a2e146f5c2-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-a2e146f5c2-307918301
Astronomers call this event an “opposition of Mars” because Mars and the Sun are on opposite sides of the sky. Mars rises in the east at sunset, and soars almost overhead at midnight, shining burnt-orange almost 10 times brighter than a 1st magnitude star.
Source: http://www.earth-heal.com/videos/viewvideo/3297/the-opposition-of-mars-april-2014.html
