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 not be readily observable since it will be very close to the Sun, at a separation of only 8° from it.
A chart of the path of Mars across the sky in 2028 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 | 22h10m40s | 12°21'S | Aquarius | 1.1 | 4.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 11 Feb 2028
| The sky on 11 February 2028 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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97% 16 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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Warning
Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.
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
| 01 Apr 2027 | – Mars ends retrograde motion |
| 14 Feb 2029 | – Mars enters retrograde motion |
| 25 Mar 2029 | – Mars at opposition |
| 29 Mar 2029 | – Mars at perigee |
Image credit
© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope