Hello All,

This year an uncommon astronomical event will occur—a perihelic opposition of the planet Mars, when the Earth and the Red Planet will approach each other as closely, or about as closely, as they can, and Mars will be at its maximum apparent size and brightness. Opposition means that at the time of the two planets’ closest approach, Mars appears opposite the Sun in the Earth’s sky. Perihelic refers to perihelion, the point in Mars’ orbit when it is closest to the Sun; aphelic refers to aphelion, the point in Mars’ orbit when it is farthest from the Sun.

The moment of closest approach will occur at 2320 UT (7:20 PM Eastern Time) on October 13, 2020, but the two planets will be very close to the minimum distance for some days before and after October 13. As well as the features on the planet itself, Mars’ two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, are best viewed during oppositions of Mars, although a fairly powerful amateur-size telescope is needed to see them (see: https://www.skyandtelescope.com/obs...oons-in-200708/ ). Also:

The last perihelic Mars opposition was in 2003; they follow after a 17-year and then a 15-year interval, then another 17 years (or vice-versa, depending on which perihelic opposition one is counting forward from; the last one before 2003’s occurred 15 years earlier, in 1988), as *this* https://earthsky.org/sky-archive/cl...ian-oppositions article shows. Because Mars’ elliptical orbit around the Sun is significantly eccentric (all planets move in elliptical orbits, but most—like the Earth—have nearly-circular, low-eccentricity orbits), Mars is considerably farther away from the Earth during aphelic oppositions than during perihelic ones. As well:

The very closest possible oppositions occur when Mars is at its perihelion at the same time the Earth reaches its aphelion, but since the Earth’s orbit is nearly circular (with its perihelion and aphelion varying only between 91.40 and 94.51 million miles, respectively [as opposed to 128 and 154 million miles for Mars]), the Earth’s distance from the Sun makes relatively little difference in the closeness of Mars at oppositions, and:

Here are more links to information on the upcoming Mars opposition this year: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...Hb4cCIEQ4dUDCAg

I hope this information will be helpful.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

I wonder when we will start getting those emails telling us that Mars will look bigger than thee moon?

__________________
Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

Watch out for incandescent jets of gas coming from Mars on those dates

I hesitate to suggest that as a drinking game (a shot of one's favorite liquor, liquer, or other spirits every time that is received via e-mail, and/or seen online), because it would constitute mass liver abuse! :-)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Even today, that passage in Well's nineteenth century novel is haunting, where the narrator (at a local observatory) observed through the telescope "a reddish flash at the edge" of the planet's disc, which the spectroscope showed to be "chiefly hydrogen, moving with enormous velocity toward the Earth," and "invisible to my eye, because it was so small and remote, was the Thing they were sending us..."

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Martian biology (exobiology) is also being looked at again, as it still appears possible that the Viking Mars landers’ life-detection experiments—in particular, Dr. Gilbert Levin’s Labeled Release experiment—did in fact detect the metabolism of Martian microbes (see: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...273.kpMcu5eJqDc) ). No test using duplicate Martian soil—and there have been many—has ever replicated the Labeled Release results on Mars, and:

This is a major reason (although the cost is another, of course) why NASA, ESA, and other space agencies haven’t pursued human-crewed Mars expeditions, or even robotic Mars sample return missions (even though the latter are perfectly technically feasible today), due to fear of possible “back contamination” of the Earth’s biosphere by possible Martian organisms, should something go wrong. (No one is trying to stop Elon Musk and his “band of merry Martians” because they intend to stay and settle the planet, so back contamination is a non-issue where they’re concerned—as he has said, “I want to die on Mars, but not on impact.”) Also:

While the space agencies’ official positions are that life on Mars is unlikely, they are sufficiently unsure that they don’t want to risk possible global pandemics, especially now that liquid water (in wet soil in gullies) and seismic activity (suggesting underground geothermal [or areothermal, on Mars] heat) have been detected on Mars. Since the Martian surface contains so much iron oxide (rust), there is concern that tetanus-like micro-organisms may live there (the microbes of botulism, tetanus, and gangrene thrive in simulated Martian conditions ["Mars Jars"], which many find fitting for a planet named after the god of war). If they are there, and if they could get at the iron oxide in human blood (hemoglobin), it might be, strangely, much the same situation for human visitors (or settlers) that H.G. Wells described in "The War of the Worlds," where the Martians, having no digestive tracts, directly injected--via a biological pipette--human blood into their own veins (and had brought along in their cylinders very frail bipeds, all of which were killed before Earth was reached, from which they drew blood during their interplanetary journeys).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR