|
|
Article: HERE COMES MARS EARTH'S CLOSEST MATCHUP WITH THE FOURTH PLANET WILL HAPPEN AUG. 27.(FRONT)
- Article from:
- The Capital Times
- Article date:
- August 16, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Capital Newspapers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Heather Lee Schroeder The Capital Times
In all of recorded human history, it is only the Earth civilization of 2003 that can claim a close encounter of the red kind.
Mars, dubbed the Red Planet for its reddish-orange hue, will be within 35 million miles of Earth (about one-third of the distance from the Earth to the sun) at the end of the month, the closest it has been in possibly 60,000 years.
It won't be this close again until about 2287.
With Mars so relatively close, it gives amateur astronomers their best chance to see Earth's neighbor from their own back yards, with or without a telescope or binoculars. It is easily ...