All week, the planet Mars will be close to the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. Both will appear to the naked eye as red dots of approximately the same brightness in the pre-dawn sky. Mars gets its colour from the dust on its surface that reflects sunlight. Antares on the other hand is a red giant star, 700 times the diameter of the Sun and vastly further away. Whereas the light from Mars takes just over 13 minutes to cross the space between us, from Antares it takes around 604 years. This means Mars appears as it did just a quarter of an hour ago, whereas the light from Antares began its journey across space in the year 1414. At the end of the week, early risers are in for a special treat. The chart shows the situation at 05:00 GMT on 9 February, when Mars and Antares will be joined low in the southern sky by a waning crescent moon.
Starwatch: distant encounter between the red planet and a red giant
This article is more than 6 years old
Mars and Antares will be close together in our skies this week, but are separated in space by hundreds of light years
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion