The phenomenon of "crossing Mars" allows his vision with the naked eye

Mars passes at its earliest point of land in 15 years in a phenomenon known as the "Mars transit", and provides a good opportunity to observe the Red Planet even with the naked eye.

NASA sees this as an ideal opportunity to take advantage of this relatively close distance in sending Mars exploration vehicles. That is why Mars missions tend to launch almost every two years, because that is the time period in which near-traffic occurs.

This time, NASA launched the Insight mission, a moving robotic vehicle that will reach the Red Planet later this year.

But people on the ground can get a good look at Mars, too. It's near enough to make an extraordinary view that lets people see the planet's details through the telescope, or even observe it with the naked eye.

This phenomenon occurs because the Earth and Mars do not have orbits completely circular but revolve around the sun in an oval, and this orbit can sometimes be affected by the largest planets in our solar system.

Sometimes the oval orbit moves some planets away from each other, and at other times makes them close, and the current near-transit is the result of that movement, making the worlds close.

All of the above facts mean that not all near-transit phenomena are identical. NASA says that Mars was at its closest passage from Earth about 60,000 years ago in 2003, and will not be so close again until 2287.

In all cases of near-transit, Mars never approaches Earth at less than 54.5 million kilometers.

source

aljazeera