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About every two years when Mars and Earth are on the same side of the solar system, the astronomical event stirs up a bit of fake news and woe for astronomers everywhere.
Every 26 months Mars and Earth are on the same side of the Sun, which is known as Mars opposition, making the Red Planet closer to our home planet. It's a good opportunity to look at Mars with the naked eye or through a telescope and it's also when NASA and other space agencies choose to launch spacecraft to the Red Planet because of the shortened travel time.
While you're here, how about this:
Stuck At Home? Explore Mars With The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera that captured most of these detailed ... [+] images is one of three cameras aboard MRO.
NASA's Perseverance Rover is on its way to Mars, but 15 years ago, another spacecraft made the same months-long cruise from Earth to Mars, carrying three cameras and a suite of scientific instruments. Data and images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter helped NASA choose the landing sites for rovers and landers like Curiosity, InSight, and Perseverance. Thanks to the MRO, NASA knew where the rovers could land safely, where to do the most interesting science, and where to go next.
Amazing Mars Mission Nearing Red Planet - Nextgov
A couple years ago I wrote about NASA's ambitious plans for a future Mars mission that involved everything from flying helicopters around on the red planet to setting up a listening post so we could all tune into the native vibes up there. The past couple years down here on Earth have been challenging to say the least, and I kind of lost track of this project despite my initial enthusiasm.
NASA also loaded five pieces of material onto Perseverance: polycarbonate, Vectran, Ortho-fabric, Teflon and coated Teflon. If they hold up on Mars, those materials will make up the bulk of the spacesuits that human astronauts will wear on future missions into space. Seeing how those materials perform could also benefit the Artemis project, which aims to send humans back to the moon in 2024 as a stepping stone toward eventual Mars missions.
Looking Up: Fiery Mars arrives on the scene
If you have a good, low view to the east, catch what looks like a distant campfire soon after the sky grows dark and the stars come out to shine.
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The beloved Red Planet, long cloaked in awe and mystery, only in the past few decades has started to reveal some secrets, even as more questions arise. Its lure somehow draws us as in millennia past, now in this space-age close to our literal grasp.
Mars orbits the sun in 687 Earth days, which is nearly two Earth years, and each time reaches a closest point. This point is referred to as perihelion (the farthest point is aphelion). The distance varies considerably due to Mars' highly elliptical orbit. On occasion, it gets close enough to stand out like a fiery beacon, catching even the attention of people who don't ordinarily look up to admire a clear, night sky.
While you're here, how about this:
Watch NASA's Perseverance rover journey to Mars in real time
In July 2020, a car-sized robot began an intrepid journey to another world. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently on its way to Mars, traveling through deep space and set to land on the Red Planet by February, 2021.
NASA released a new tool that lets you go along for the ride, following the rover's journey to Mars in real time.
The tool is called Eyes on the Solar System , and users can log on to see the distance between Perseverance rover and Mars at any given moment, as well as the rest of the robot's trajectory to the Red Planet.
China's Mars mission tests instruments on its way to the Red Planet | Space
China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft is performing well on its cruise to Mars and is preparing for its second trajectory correction maneuver, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
By Aug. 19 at 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 GMT), the spacecraft, which includes an orbiter, lander and rover, was 5.11 million miles (8.23 million kilometers) away from Earth and operating normally, according to CNSA.
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That same day, mission engineers began testing instruments on the orbiter, including the Mars magnetometer, the mineralogy spectrometer and the medium- and high-resolution remote-sensing cameras.
Mars lander InSight picks up tiny ground tilt caused by Phobos moon transit | Space
NASA's InSight Mars lander can detect a nearly imperceptible tilt caused by the planet's moon Phobos passing in front of the sun, scientists have realized.
And the measurements may help scientists pin down a number of eclectic facts about Mars and Phobos , particularly if InSight remains at work beyond its two-year primary mission, which runs out this fall. The new research is just the sort of science that wasn't on InSight's agenda but is an unexpected bonus discovered in the data.
Former Mars Exec Says He Was Stamped On After Taking New Job
Happening on Twitter
PSA- Mars will be beautiful tonight* but no, it will NOT be as big as the full moon! A hoax goes around every coupl… https://t.co/N9DKZRP1Gy AstronautAbby (from Minneapolis ) Fri Aug 28 04:15:49 +0000 2020
.@news6wkmg got a call from a viewer who wanted to know if it was true the moon and Mars would be "the same size" i… https://t.co/rb8rekSCJu EMSpeck (from Orlando, FL) Fri Aug 28 14:53:42 +0000 2020
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