(WWJ) – Wednesday night into Thursday morning will be a sight to behold for space lovers.
Mars is near its closest approach to Earth in the last 26 months, which is about how long the cycle takes for the Red Planet to come close to Earth.
While the planet was visible for much of November and will continue to be for a while, but Mike Murray of the Delta College Planetarium tells WWJ’s Erin Vee on “All Over the Space” our nearest neighbor is “nice and bright in the sky right now.”
Every two years and two months the planets align on the same side of the sun, which also means that’s when we get these close approaches.
“But get this. Mars is in a very elliptical orbit. It’s very oval-like. So some of those close approaches are better than others and this will be the best one until about 2031,” Murray said.
Mars will be visible in the eastern sky to the naked moon, though Murray says the planet’s moons won’t be.
While Mars is known for being the Red Planet, it’s not necessarily visible that way in the night sky, according to Murray.
“When you see it in the night sky, as with stars because a lot of stars have colors as well, it’s not a pure red,” he said. “No star is a pure color – it’s always mixed in with a fair amount of white. But you can see a tinge of red in Mars, just with the naked eye in the night sky and especially when it gets closer to us, like right now. So Mars will look like a very beautiful, bright beacon in the eastern sky, about two hours after sunset.”
Murray noted it’s up to Michigan’s weather to cooperate to be able to see it.
Meanwhile on Mars, the Perseverance Rover is up to some interesting things that may be able to answer some major questions we have, which Murray discusses on this latest episode.
More information on the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City can be found online. Follow the planetarium on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.
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