Khagol Alert: Closest approach of Mars

[Ganesh Kulkarni]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Khagol Mandal <khagol.ma...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Subject: Khagol Alert: Closest approach of Mars
To: Khagol Mandal <khagol.ma...@gmail.com>

MARS: CLOSEST APPROACH

Mars will be at opposition in the small hours of March 4, 2012. At opposition, Earth will overtake Mars during its revolution around the Sun and will pass  between Mars and Sun. Consequently, the distance between Earth and Mars will be minimal. This has rendered Mars as one of the brightest objects in the night sky for last few weeks. Moreover, being close to Earth, Mars exhibits relatively larger angular diameter. Mars will be closest to the Earth on the next day i.e. March 5, 2012. As Mars and Sun are on opposite sides of Earth, Mars now-a-days rises when sun sets and vice versa. Due to this, Mars can be spotted in the sky throughout the night.

 

The present closest approach is however not really 'the closest approach', as Mars can come within about 55 million kilometers of Earth under favourable oppositions. This happens when the opposition takes place when Mars is near perihelion. At the present apparition, Mars is close to its aphelion position.

 

 

Details about Mars on the day of closest approach:  

 

Constellation: Leo

Closest Approach: 05/03/2012 (21.30 hours IST)

Earth-Mars distance: 0.6737 A.U. (100.8 million km)

Sun-Mars Distance:  1.6643  A.U. (249.6 million km)

Angular diameter of Mars: 13.9”

Apparent Magnitude: -1.2

Illumination 99.9%

 

Regards,

 

Khagol Mandal

http://www.khagolmandal.com/

 

N.B.: Our emails are being treated as spam by some of the email service providers. Please check your spam box for an email from Khagol Mandal. If such email is found in the spam box, please mark it as "not spam" and move it to inbox. Furthermore, please add the addresses - khagol.ma...@gmail.com and ne...@khagolmandal.com - to your address book.
  

----------
1. These emails are sent to all members/patrons/well wishers of Khagol Mandal. If somebody is not interested in receiving these emails, it may be intimated through a reply to this email. His name will be deleted from the mailing list.
2. If anybody wants additional information about our programmes, he may send an email to man...@khagolmandal.com.

3. If any additional information about our programmes is required, you may contact on phone no. 9869672444 or send an email to man...@khagolmandal.com.
---------- 
 

--

Thanks and Regards,

Ganesh Kulkarni,

Mumbai,

India.

Mb. +91 90043 82713