Why are NASA's Curiosity rover and the Insight lander about to go quiet? The ‘solar conjunction’ of Mars explained.
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, from the location where it landed in August 2012 to its location in August 2019, and its planned path to additional geological layers of lower"Mount Sharp." The blue star near topBy definition, it’s not visible from Earth since Mars goes virtually behind the Sun as seen from Earth. Aside from the 10 days of solar conjunction, Mars is always visible in the night sky.
Lately, it’s been visible just after sunset as it’s appeared to creep towards the Sun. However, in 10 days it will be on the other side of the Sun, so visible just before sunrise.Recently, Mars has been a faint object after sunset. After the solar conjunction, Mars will appear the other side of the Sun, and so become a pre-dawn object.
We observe the solar system, the Milky Way and the Universe beyond from Earth. Every constellation you’ve ever seen is merely a line-of-sight effect of your observing position–the solar system. The Big Dipper wouldn’t have the same shape at all if viewed from deep space. Similarly, Orion’s Belt is merely an illusion.
Everything we see is from one perspective, but since our planet is constantly moving as it orbits the Sun, our view of the planets constantly changes. Since the planets are doing the same thing, just at different speeds, we’re effectively watching moving targets from a moving target.NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSThis is called “retrograde motion” and although it might seem odd, it makes perfect sense if you think about Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
The next time Mars will appear to go backwards in our night sky will be from September 9-November 14, 2020.Follow me on
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