Posted at 10:50 a.m., Thursday, June 21, 2001

Mars closer tonight than in last 13 years

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Advertiser Staff and News Services

If you look up at the sky tonight, you will see Mars looming larger than it has in 13 years.

At 8 p.m. the Red Planet will be the brightest thing in the southeastern sky, said Bishop Museum's planetarium manager Mike Shanahan.

"It's a very pale orange, like a rusty orange," Shanahan said. "It looks like a star, but it doesn't blink or twinkle."

Mars and Earth line up in "opposition" about every two years, meaning Mars is directly opposite the Sun as viewed from Earth. But the planets' orbits are not circular, so some oppositions are closer than others.

Tonight Mars will be the closest it has been since 1988: 42 million miles.

While a telescope is needed to see any of the planet's surface features, including its brilliant polar caps, anyone can see Mars with just their eyes.

Mars should remain bright through October.

The two planets will be even closer — just 35 million miles apart — in August 2003.

"It will be the closest approach of Mars to Earth in at least 5,000 years; probably more like 100,000 years," said Myles Standish of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.