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 become visible at around 16:55 (EST), 21° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 25 minutes after the Sun at 19:36.
A chart of the path of Mars across the sky in 2014 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 | 20h32m50s | 20°09'S | Capricornus | 1.0 | 5.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 23 Nov 2024
| The sky on 23 November 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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39% 22 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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
| 19 May 2014 | – Mars ends retrograde motion |
| 17 Apr 2016 | – Mars enters retrograde motion |
| 22 May 2016 | – Mars at opposition |
| 30 May 2016 | – Mars at perigee |
Image credit
© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope