what if Earth and Mars switched places?

Everything you should know about Mars Opposition!

what is Mars opposition how frequently

does it happen why is it important to

amateur astronomy and how can you see it

in the night sky let's talk about that

so, Mars opposition is when the Sun and

Mars on the exact opposite sides of the

earth meaning that you could draw a

straight line directly through the three

celestial bodies now this is a major

event for amateur astronomy because that

means Mars can be seen throughout almost

the entire night sky

now how frequently does this happen and

to answer that question, we have to take

a step back and look at the solar system

as a whole or at least the Sun Earth and

Mars if we think of Earth and Mars as

racecars starting at the beginning of a

race that means they'll start out at

opposition however Earth's track is a

little bit shorter since it's closer to

the Sun it doesn't have to travel as far

meaning eventually Earth is actually

going to lap Mars in its path so every

time Earth passes Mars

that's when Mars opposition happens so

this happens once every 780 days meaning

that this isn't a once-in-a-lifetime

experience

however, the variation on how close Mars

actually, gets changes every opposition

for example, in 2003 Mars opposition was

the closest that it had ever been in

over 50,000 years now when is the next

Mars opposition it actually is coming up

really soon this Friday Mars Mars 27

July 27 2008 eeen so where will you need

to look to find Mars in the night sky if

you live in the northern hemisphere you

should look towards the southeast when

the Sun sets and as you get closer to

midnight you should look higher into the

sky but in the southern part of the sky

whereas if you live in the southern

hemisphere it's going to be directly

overhead for the most part it's going to

rise in the east when the Sun sets in

the west and it's gonna go all the way

across the sky similar to the path that

the moon travels now speaking of the

moon it's actually going to be a full

moon of that night therefore it will

make the apparent brightness of Mars a

little less just because the moon is

going to be so bright but it's still

gonna be pretty noticeable so what

should you be looking for then I

sky well it looks something like this

pretty reddish almost peachy and

standing out amongst the other stars so

if you have a telescope or binoculars

you should definitely check it out

through those because it'll make it seem

a little bit more clear now Mars

opposition turns out to be incredibly

important to the history of astronomy

and proving Copernicus right that all

the planets orbit around the sun.