Mars's 687-day orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 1.38 AU.
Unlike most of the planets, which follow almost exactly circular orbits around the Sun which only vary in their distance from the Sun by a few percent, Mars has a significantly elliptical orbit. Its distance from the Sun varies between 1.38 AU and 1.67 AU – a variation of over 20% – meaning that it receives 31% less heat and light from the Sun at aphelion as compared to perihelion.
Finding Mars
Mars's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From Cambridge, at the moment of perihelion it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 02:31 (EDT) – 2 hours and 36 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 19° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 04:21.
A chart of the path of Mars across the sky in 2007 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Mars at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Mars | 00h57m20s | 4°28'N | Pisces | 0.8 | 5.8" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 28 May 2024
| The sky on 28 May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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61% 20 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
| 09 Dec 2005 | – Mars ends retrograde motion |
| 15 Nov 2007 | – Mars enters retrograde motion |
| 18 Dec 2007 | – Mars at perigee |
| 24 Dec 2007 | – Mars at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope