Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth

amazon10x writes "Mars will come unusually close to the Earth on Saturday; the second time in 60,000 years. The last occurrence was in 2003. 'This is the best we're going to see Mars, so we should strike the iron while it is hot,' said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine. The Red Planet will be 43.1 million miles from Earth at 11:25pm [Eastern time]." Update by J : Starting a few hours after sunset, look fairly high in the eastern sky.

Comments

Time zone?

[lisany]

Well what time zone? 11:25pm here could be 6:25am somewhere else. Bad slashdot!

Re:again?

[yotto]

*Doesn't something like this happen every year these days?*

If by "every year" you mean "Every other year," and by "every other year" you mean "2003" then yes, it happens every year. Note, please, that every other year (give or take) Mars gets closer to us, then further, then closer, so there are times where it will be closer than others. This one (and the one in 2003) are just extra-close.

*So it came unusually close in 2003... and now again in 2005... and they're expecting it again in 2018?*

They're not "expecting" it so much as "knowing" it, but yes, Mars gets closest to us every couple years, and sometimes it's closer than others, so it will be in 2018 as well (I assume, I haven't actually researched 2018 in particular). It won't be as close as it is this year, or in 2003, which made these two so special.

*And so it's happening 3 times in 15 years... but we're going to blow that up to say "3 times in 60,000 years!!!"*

We're not blowing up anything. 60,000 years ago (or so) Mars was as close to the Earth as it will be this week. Between 60,000 years ago and now, it's only happened once, in 2003, and it will happen again in a couple days.

*Honestly... the New Orleans Saints win playoff games more rarely than this occurs.*

To put this in terms you'll understand, think of it this way. The NOS win a game, after losing, say, 5 in a row. The announcer says "This is their first win in 6 games." Are you going to complain and say "No it's not, it's their first win in ONE GAME!"?

*Other than it's significance to NASA's mars mission and palmists, all this means to john-everyman is that the red dot in the sky is a little brighter.*

Which is why we're having this discussion on a geek website. It's NEWS.