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Mars in closest encounter with Earth

New Delhi Aug. 27. A celestial history was made today when the planet Mars had its closest encounter with the Earth, shining in the sky as a bright yellowish-orange disk to the naked eye.

``It came closest to the Earth at 3.21 p.m. IST. The distance between the two was 55.8 million km,'' N. Rathnasree, Director of the Nehru Planetarium here, which made arrangements for public viewing of Mars, said. However, Mars was not visible during that point as it was daytime. Nevertheless, in the evening, when it rose in the horizon, scores of people here at the Planetarium and the British School watched it through telescopes.

Scientists and amateur astronomers the world over have been focussing their telescopes during the past one month when Mars began its odyssey towards Earth, to catch a glimpse of its polar ice caps and peculiar surface markings. Pictures have been clicked through sensitive telescopes.

Though Mars was closest to the Earth today, closest in the last 73,000 years, it is not a one-day phenomenon — Mars has been visible and brightening remarkably in the last one month and will also be visible during September, outshining Jupiter and rivalling Venus. Unlike stars it does not twinkle.

Astronomers have been able to view the southern polar ice cap, which appears as a white patch through telescope. A dark region identified as syrpis major, which has numerous craters, and the grandest canyon of the solar system known as vallis marinaris have also been viewed.

'A shining jewel'

``It appeared like a jewel shining in the sky,'' Amitabh Pandey from the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) said. ``We have been able to view syrpis major planetia as a V-shaped dark colour patch. It was one of the first features viewed by the famous astronomer Cassini through telescope.''

Mr. Pandey said that in earlier attempts, he had watched the southern polar ice cap and vallis marinaris, which appeared as a dark streak. However, the ice cap was now shrunk in view as that side of Mars was facing the sun, leading to evaporation of carbon dioxide ice. Mars is also known for its grand mountain, three times higher than Mt. Everest, called Oklympus Mons.

The planet would not get closer than this to earth until the year 2287 when it would be 70,000 km closer. It is currently the sole planet visible to the naked eye in the direction opposite to the sun. All other planets, including the brightest, Venus, are rather close to the Sun, thus invisible to the naked eye. The area is also relatively free of bright stars.

Mars and Earth come closer to each other once every two years in a phenomenon called opposition. But not every opposition is the same,'' Dr. Rathnasree said, adding that in an opposition, the Earth, the planet and the Sun fall in a straight line.

There has been a debate on whether there was life on Mars, may be microbial, in the past.

A meteorite from Mars had fallen in the Arctic region a few years back. It had fossilised microbial life, Dr. Rathnasree said.

Besides, there has been some evidence of flowing water in Mars. Currently, there is no water but channels still remain. Ice on Mars is made up of frozen carbon dioxide and some water.

— PTI

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