What will happen on August 27 at 00.30. When will Mars approach Earth? Movement of the planets of the solar system. How is the distance between Mars and Earth changing?

The Earth's atmosphere is divided into layers that differ in temperature, density and chemical composition. At sea level, the atmosphere exerts a pressure of 1 atm. The average density decreases with height.

The atmosphere is divided into Troposphere, tropopause, Stratosphere, stratopause, Ozone layer, and so on. up to 1,000 km and beyond.

The atmosphere of the Sun is no different from the atmosphere of the Earth, except for one thing, just as the size of the planet Earth differs from the Sun, so the size of the rest of the data increases many times over. So the pressure on Earth is 1 atm. equal to several billion atm. on the surface of the sun. The height of the Earth's atmosphere of thousands of kilometers turns for the atmosphere of the Sun into billions of kilometers, far beyond the orbit of the last planet SS.

Pictured is the planet Mercury. Movement speed...

On the night of July 27-28 (from 21:25 to 01:15), residents of Russia, including St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, will be able to observe the longest lunar eclipse in the last hundred years, it will last 3 hours and 51 minutes. The total phase of the eclipse will last from 22:30 to 00:13 (1 hour 43 minutes). At this time, the moon will have a red color.

In addition, on this day, July 27, 2018, the observer will be able to see the great opposition of Mars with the Sun. The red planet of the solar system will be at the minimum distance from Earth over the past 15 years, or rather, the distance will be only 55.76 million kilometers. The brightness of Mars will reach 2.8 magnitudes and this is with an apparent diameter of 24.2.

Solar system! Is it possible to bring it to a common denominator?

. Year speed of movement distance from the Sun
1. Mercury 87 days 47.1 km / s 0.357 AU

2. Venus 224 days 35 km/sec 0.723 AU

3. Earth 365 days 32 km / s ...

The mission will look for evidence of methane in the Martian atmosphere that could confirm the presence of life or activity in the planet's present or past. ILV Proton with the spacecraft of the ExoMars - 2016 mission at the Baikonur Cosmodrome started successfully.

The main objective of the 2016 mission is to find evidence of methane in the planet's atmosphere, which could confirm the presence of life or activity in the present or past of Mars, as well as test key technologies for the second ExoMars expedition, scheduled for 2018.

For a long time, the entire Internet was filled with articles about close approach of Mars to Earth. Even the exact time is indicated when the planet Mars will approach the Earth and that, allegedly, in the night sky it will be the brightest star along with the Moon.

Let's see if on August 27, 2015 (2016, 2017) the maximum approach of Mars to the Earth will occur and will it be as bright as the Moon in the night sky?!

Here is what they write:

On August 27 at 00:30, everyone will be able to see an unusual sight in the night sky. The planet Mars, will pass only 34.65 thousand / 34.65 million miles (55 thousand km. / 55 million km.) from the earth. To the naked eye, the planet will be visible as a full moon. It will look like two moons above the earth! Next…

So Sunday October 19 has come and all the astronomers of the world are preparing to observe an event that occurs once in a million years! On this day, comet C/2013 A1, discovered by Siding Spring observatory specialist Robert McNaught, will approach Mars at a minimum distance of 138,000 kilometers, which is 3 times less than the distance between the Earth and the Moon, and its tail will stretch for several hundred thousand kilometers and an icy the dust of the comet will envelop Mars for a while.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has released new details about its proposed mission, which is designed to move nearby asteroids away from Earth, into other orbits. The plan is based on a combination of already launched proven hardware solutions and advanced technologies under development. The first step, the selection of potential targets, will be handled by the wide-field infrared surveyor, the WISE telescope. WISE was launched in 2009 with a two-year mission to image 99% of the visible sky in infrared. Once this mission was successfully completed, NASA gave the spacecraft a second four-month mission to detect and track objects close to Earth. Although many of them, such as small asteroids, do not reflect visible light, they can be detected by thermal emission.

On the night of August 6, 2012, there was 7 minutes of silence at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. “Seven minutes of horror turned into seven minutes of triumph” - John Grunsfeld, former astronaut, now Administrator of NASA Science Programs. This is the time it takes for a radio signal to cover the distance between Mars and Earth. The space rover Curiosity ("Curiosity") took more than 8 months to do this, and scientists - years of painstaking efforts, preparation and attempts, sometimes ending in failure. At 1:39 UT, the long-awaited news came - the rover is on the surface, and begins its mission, previously planned for two years. A few more minutes - and the first picture comes ...

the ending

Yana wrote the events on her blog - the ship's transmitter was quite powerful, as was the receiver, and if desired, we could drown out any station with our broadcasts, being close to the Earth.

"We're flying over the moon. In one spectrum it can be seen through, as in an x-ray. And what do you think inside? It reminded me of a clock. Mechanical. There are a lot of gears out there.

Everything moves and ticks. Earth clock? In the space between the parts, something is constantly moving and moving. We decided not to stay there because of the uncomfortable questions that we will be asked like - What are you doing here .. Your place is there and there.

In general, being alone in space is an indescribable feeling.

No fear. The feeling is that music is playing somewhere, classical, not only for me, but for everyone ...

continuation

The balding Editor-in-Chief sat at the table and did not notice anyone.

I myself will know everything, sit here .. - Rina said.

Oddly enough, I agreed.

Is the editor-in-chief of the Selsky Udel newspaper here?

“Rural allotment,” the editor corrected, without taking his head off the table.

How can I..?

There was recently a note about training for a flight to Mars ... .. I wanted to “thank” this journalist personally .. - Rina said.

Ah, Yanka, oh, and a smart girl, but lucky ..

Why lucky?

Tried to commit suicide three times...

Could it be more...

Mmm……..

You can't imagine how happy I was when they were crying .. That they are here, together.

They, and the stars.. How romantic. No, it's better that way - THEY ARE STARS!

Who do you choose? - the tearful girls asked ..

Bench - without blinking, but apparently thinking, I answered.

You have to choose one of us... One.

Well, if I don’t want to choose, but I want to be with you and that’s it. Who will forbid me?

Your words mean to me - choose one leg, one arm .. And I don’t see myself without you ..

I'm gone.

The girls looked at each other smiling.

Guys, I'm sinful, said Rina, I recently met a guy, well, because of curiosity.

I ask him...

On the question of the approach of Mars and the Earth. There is widespread information that on August 27 the two planets will approach - and so much so that Mars will become like the full moon in our sky. Only in Russia, deprived of school astronomy, such nonsense can appear. All wrong.

The only thing that is a stretch true is the indication of August 27th. What is this date? This is the moment when our Earth comes closest to the orbit of Mars, being near its perihelion ...

But, in order for the planets to be close to each other, Mars must also be at the perihelion point of its orbit at the same moment! And this happens infrequently. When this happens, the situation is called a great confrontation. Then the distance between the planets decreases to about 55 - 56 million kilometers. It's still a lot. Little Mars is visible as a bright orange star. Through a telescope, you can see the planet's tiny disk. In a good (or space) telescope, details can be seen - one of the polar caps, a dark detail called Big Syrt. But no more. Great confrontations are repeated in about 15-17 years.

Dimensions of Mars as seen through a telescope at great opposition, middle opposition, and conjunction with the Sun.

The usual (not great) confrontation happens much more often - once every 780 days, which is about two Earth years. This happens when the Sun, Earth and Mars are exactly on the same straight line. But if the confrontation is not in August, the distance is much greater. So, the last opposition of Mars was relatively recent - in April 2014, and Mars was at that moment more than 90 million kilometers away from us. Now the planets are moving apart, and on August 27 there will be more than 200 million kilometers between Earth and Mars. I repeat, at this moment the Earth will come closest to the perihelion of the orbit of Mars, but here's the bad luck - Mars will not be there!

The position of the orbit of Mars to the orbit of the Earth

Therefore, it is, of course, possible to look at Mars now, but it is almost pointless. In April, it was twice as close, and the conditions for observations were much better than now. The wild message that Mars will be in the sky like the Moon is an ignorant fake, as it is now customary to talk about falsifications on the Internet.

I can guess where the idea "Mars will be like the Moon" came from. During the greatest opposition of Mars in August 2003, the distance between the planets decreased to 55 million kilometers, for the first time in centuries. And one of the popularizers wrote that at that time Mars IN A TELESCOPE WITH A 75X Magnification was visible in the sky as the Moon WITH THE NAIL EYE. I repeat: Mars is like the Moon, but only the Moon without a telescope, and Mars in a telescope, and even with a strong increase. The one who launched the fake apparently decided that the situation always repeats itself on August 27th. At the same time, for some reason, I forgot to mention the telescope.

Mars at opposition in 2010.

Alan Friedman's photo was taken with a good telescope. It’s useless to look at Mars without a telescope, and it’s not so interesting through a telescope either - the planet is too small.

Therefore, there will be nothing to look at. There will be no moon-sized Mars. I suggest waiting for the next great confrontation in July 2018. Then the distance will be 57 and a half million kilometers, and not 200 million, as it is now. That's when we look through the telescope.

Yazev S.A., Director of the ISU Astronomical Observatory,
Irkutsk

Mars opposition from 2014 to 2050
(Great confrontations are highlighted in color)

Date Shine, Distance
year day sound a. e. million km

2020 October 10 -2.62 0.419 62.68
2022 December 08 -1.87 0.550 82.28
2025 January 16 -1.38 0.643 96.19
2027 February 19 -1.21 0.678 101.43
2029 March 25 -1.34 0.649 97.09
2031 May 04 -1.80 0.559 83.63
2033 June 28 -2.51 0.427 63.88

2037 November 19 -2.16 0.494 73.84
2040 January 02 -1.53 ​​0.610 91.39
2042 February 06 -1.24 0.672 100.49
2044 March 11 -1.26 0.667 99.79
2046 April 17 -1.58 0.597 89.32
2048 June 03 -2.22 0.474 70.86

The wonderful date of August 27 should have been made a red day of the calendar and celebrated annually. I even propose to introduce the so-called "Mars Day" - "Mars Day", because everyone has his own day, even the Elephant has an "Elephant Day". The red planet must also have its day.

On the night of August 27-28, 2003, the previous Great Opposition of Mars took place. Mars was then perfectly visible in the constellation of Aquarius and in general - a significant amount of attention was riveted to it, both of the public involved in the scientific world, and of all other people thanks to the abundance of publications in the media. And probably, by attracting people to this topic, it was possible to earn something on the Internet at banner displays or in some other way. It is possible that for these reasons, enterprising people unknown to the world posted on the Internet a kind of "letter of happiness" that on August 27 Mars is expected in the sky the size of a full moon. Only, here, the year is not indicated. But you can’t just take and publish stupidity on the Internet, and then completely remove it from the Internet. The Internet remembers everything. And every year in the month of August this rubbish pops up, Together with it, a memory awakens in the human memory that on August 27 something rare in the sky should happen, something that happens once in 5000 years, but - every year .. .

Let's find out how red Mars will be seen and what it will look like on August 27, 2016.

In 2016, the planet Mars passed its next opposition - not the Great one this time, but quite close to the Earth. The visibility of the red planet was excellent for most of the year. But in the last summer month, the conditions of this visibility began to deteriorate sharply. This is due to the fact that Mars is getting closer to the Sun, and the fact that the height of Mars above the horizon continues to be very small - Mars in August 2016 is located almost in the southernmost part of the ecliptic and very quickly goes beyond the horizon. And the maximum that a resident of the middle latitudes of Russia can count on is from 30 minutes to an hour - this is the time during which you can try to make out a reddish star-like star in the twilight glow low over the southwestern horizon.

Yes, Mars in the second half of August is visible only at dusk and for a very short time.

At the same time, it is quite bright - it has a "zero" stellar magnitude and is located in the most stellar thicket of the constellation Scorpio - in its "Claws". It is adjacent to the similarly colored Antares, the main star of Scorpio, and to the yellowish Saturn. This mutual arrangement of the three luminaries - Mars, Saturn and Antares - is quite interesting, beautiful and really rare. The next time the three of them will meet in the sky not soon - in 2044 and 2046 - under less favorable conditions - not as beautiful as this time.

And a separate article is devoted to how the conditions for the joint visibility of Mars, Saturn, Antares and the Moon developed this year:

By the way, it is still relevant. Read its ending - there is just about August and September left.

Despite unsatisfactory visibility conditions in central Russia, Mars is still fairly close to Earth. We are separated by only 120 million kilometers - for interplanetary scales, this is not very much. Copper most often Mars is located much longer from the Earth. And all the other planets of the Solar System (except Venus and Mercury) are always farther from us than these 120 million kilometers.

The apparent size of the planet Mars does not allow it to be different from other stars in the sky. And even through a telescope, Mars will be visible at best as a small red-orange disk with subtle lighter and darker spots. You will not be able to see any channels or Martians on August 27 even when observing Mars in the Edwin Hubble telescope.

But you can enjoy the movement of Mars among the stars of the constellation Scorpio even with binoculars or a telescope. True, one evening on August 27, 2016 will not be enough for this. And Mars will have to be observed from evening to evening - only then it will clearly become noticeable that it "floats" among the stars.

That is why I decided to take a look at his movement through the constellations of Scorpio and Ophiuchus for a month, starting right from tonight - from August 12, 2016.

On August 12, next to Mars, Saturn and Antares, the young Moon shone in a phase slightly more than the first quarter (half).

Further, on the evening of August 19, Mars will pass very close to the 4.5 magnitude Scorpio omicron star, which is no doubt worth looking through binoculars or a telescope at low magnification. The distance between Mars and the star will be half the lunar disk.

On August 23 and 24, Mars will be between Antares and Saturn - at the shortest distance from both luminaries and - almost on the same straight line. This is also worth a look.

The position of Mars among the stars of the constellations of Scorpio and Ophiuchus on August 27, 2016 is generally unremarkable.

On September 8 and 9, the Moon will pass next to Saturn and Mars again. But it will not be located very close in relation to both planets in the sky.

That's all the key points about the visibility of Mars in the coming month from mid-August to mid-September.

But for real astronomers and real astronomy lovers, there are no nights or evenings that are unsuitable for observations. The main thing is that the weather would be suitable for observations, and even - what to see - it will always be found in the sky. Therefore, at the end of this review, I leave pictures from the Stellarium program, which indicate the position of Mars among the star placers of Scorpio and Ophiuchus a month ahead - the date of August 27 is also among these pictures. But you can find Mars with their help on any fine evening.

The date is indicated at the bottom of each picture in small numbers.

The red planet on the last Wednesday of August will approach the Earth at a minimum distance - the next time such an event will occur only in 2287

In April of this year, Mars was already at a distance of 92 million kilometers from our planet. In August, the maximum convergence of the red and blue planets will take place. This phenomenon does not occur often, which makes it unusual and of interest to astronomers.

Mars and Earth. Illustration: nasa.gov.

Popular science information swept through the media that the inhabitants of the Earth on August 27 will be able to see "two moons" at once. "At 00:30, the seventh largest red planet Mars will approach the Earth at a distance of 55-56 million km," numerous online publications and "reissues" chime.

He wrote: “There is widespread information that on August 27 the two planets will approach, so much so that Mars in our sky will become like the full Moon. Only in Russia deprived of school astronomy can such nonsense appear. Everything is wrong. The only thing that is a stretch is true , this is an indication of August 27," the scientist complains.

He assured that on August 27, the Earth will come closest to the orbit of Mars, being near its perihelion (the closest point in the orbit of a planet or comet from the Sun). "But in order for the planets to be close to each other, Mars must also be at the perihelion point of its orbit at the same moment. And this happens infrequently. When this happens, the situation is called a great opposition. Then the distance between the planets decreases by about up to 55 - 56 million km. It's still a lot. Small Mars is visible as a bright orange star. A tiny disk of the planet can be seen through a telescope. Details can be seen in a good (or space) telescope - one of the polar caps, a dark detail called Big Syrt. But nothing more. Great confrontations are repeated in about 15-17 years, "Sergey Yazev explained, adding that "ordinary confrontations happen much more often - once every 780 days, which is about two Earth years."

The Irkutsk astronomer was indirectly supported by the astrogorizont.com resource. Its authors tried to dispel the rumors spread by the popular media in this way: “The indicated distance between the planets of 34.65 thousand miles (and in some sources 50 thousand with something, which is also not true) should certainly have alerted. For reference, and for those who did not study at school, we tell: the diameter of the Earth in miles is approximately 8125 miles. The distance to the Moon is 384,467 km (one and a half times less in miles). It turns out that Mars should be closer to us than the Moon? Well, not thousands of miles.”

Wikipedia recalls that Mars is the fourth largest planet from the Sun and the seventh largest planet in the solar system; The mass of the planet is 10.7% of the mass of the Earth. In terms of linear size, Mars is almost half the size of the Earth - its equatorial radius is 3396.9 km (53.2% of the Earth's). The surface area of ​​Mars is roughly equal to the land area of ​​Earth.

The polar radius of Mars is about 20 km less than the equatorial one, although the period of rotation of the planet is longer than that of the Earth, which gives reason to assume a change in the rate of rotation of Mars with time.

The mass of the planet is 6.418 1023 kg (11% of the mass of the Earth). The free fall acceleration at the equator is 3.711 m/s² (0.378 Earth's); the first cosmic velocity is 3.6 km/s and the second is 5.027 km/s.

The planet's rotation period is 24 hours 37 minutes 22.7 seconds (relative to the stars), the length of the average solar day (called sols) is 24 hours 39 minutes 35.24409 seconds, only 2.7% longer than the Earth's day. The Martian year consists of 668.6 Martian solar days.

Mars as it really is. Photo: af.wikipedia.org/NASA/JPL.

MOSCOW, July 26 - RIA Novosti. On the last day of July, Mars will come to a record close distance to Earth - the planets will be separated by only 57.5 million kilometers. As a result, the fourth planet of the solar system will become the brightest "star" in the sky, according to Sky & Telescope magazine.

“If you look at Mars on the night of July 31, just after sunset, you just don’t recognize the planet, it will become so bright. Its orange-red glow will be simply impossible to miss,” says Diana Hannikainen, an astronomer from the University of Helsinki (Finland).

This "rendezvous" of Mars and Earth will not end - the planets will be relatively close to each other throughout the remaining half of the summer, and only in September the distance between them will begin to grow rapidly.

This is not the closest approach of Mars and Earth in the history of observations - in August 2003, the planets approached each other at 55.7 million kilometers, which is probably the absolute record for the entire existence of civilization.

On the other hand, the upcoming meeting of the planets is inferior to this record by only 1.8 million kilometers, which is approximately equal to five distances between the Moon and the Earth, and has one additional and at the same time unique feature.
The fact is that immediately before this, the so-called "opposition" of Mars and the Earth will occur - on Friday, July 27, they will line up relative to the Sun and will move together for several hours.

Thanks to this, Mars can be seen in the night sky throughout the night, and at the same time the red planet itself will be at the closest possible distance from the Sun, which will make this opposition relatively rare. At the same time, another interesting cosmic event will occur - the full moon and the anomalously long lunar eclipse associated with it.

Starting from that day, Mars' apparent size and brightness will begin to increase dramatically, and they will increase by about three times by the day of approach to the Earth, making it the brightest "point" object in the night sky. At this time, it will be in the constellation Sagittarius, which, as astronomers say, will complicate observations of the planet for astronomers in Russia and other countries of the northern hemisphere.

The fact is that Mars will be at an altitude of about 13-23 degrees above the horizon, which will make it less noticeable due to the thick layer of air through which its light will break through. Together with the small apparent dimensions of the planet - only 1% of the area of ​​the Moon - this will significantly complicate the acquisition of new photographs of Mars.

On the other hand, the most persistent and "sharp" astronomy lovers will receive an additional bonus from such observations. A global dust storm is still raging on Mars, traces of which can be seen in the coming days using amateur optical telescopes.