![]() ![]() That’s exactly what happens on December 8, 2022. ![]() But a full Moon eclipsing Mars close to its once-every-26 months brightest? Now that’s a rare set of circumstances. ![]() The Moon occults a planet a few times each year, as seen from somewhere on Earth. All the planets in the solar system, including Earth, rotate around the Sun in different elliptical orbits - and at different speeds. Firstly, the circumference of Mar's orbit is 1. To do this, we must study the effect of the motions of both the Earth and Mars around the Sun. As a bonus it also means it rises in the east at dusk and remains in the night sky all night long. Retrograde Motion - What Does it Mean A planet moving backwards is an optical illusion we refer to as retrograde motion. Mars We can best understand the retrograde and prograde motions of Mars by considering the planet's motion relevant to distant stars. It’s consequently at its brightest of the year, so the best time to look at it. It marks the point when Earth is between the Sun and Mars, so the planet is fully illuminated by the Sun from our point of view. Mars always appears to move backwards around the time of its once-every-26 months “opposition,” which this year occurs on December 7, 2022. “It does get the astrologers all excited, but it’s just physics.” Mars at opposition 2022 “Saturn and Jupiter, most notably, all have retrograde motion in the sky, because we catch up with one of them, then we match their speed and then we pull away again.” It’s something all of the outer planets appear to do. “Because we then go round faster, Mars will look like it’s starting to catch up again, so it looks like it does this little loop in the sky,” said Morden. Later it again shows motion in forward direction. Starting tonight, the Red Planet will resume its usual eastward, or. For example, Mars appears to move monotonically in one direction but then suddenly during the time of opposition, appears to move backwards making a retrograde loop. It’s helpful to look at a top-down view of the solar system, which you’ll find on The Planets Today. On Thursday (Jan.12), Mars will end its retrograde motion which has seen it moving westward through the night sky. Mars (and the other outer planets) is brightest when it is closest. The 2022-2023 apparition of Mars begins retrogression, or retrograde motion against the background stars eleven months after conjunction on Octo(330 Ls) and continues through. Sitting in the faster car, the slower car appears to be moving backwards though, of course, it isn’t. The planet appears brightest during retrograde motion. It’s rather like overtaking a speeding car. “As we catch-up and go past it, it looks like it's starting to go backwards.” Simon Morden, planetary geologist and author of a new book The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars (find a review here). “Earth is moving faster around the Sun-taking 364-and-a-bit days to Mars’ 687 days-so from our point of view, as we come round the Sun, Mars is ahead of us in the sky,” said Dr. Mars in retrograde is all only about perspective.Įarth orbits the Sun closer than the Mars. ![]()
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