Mars is just 67 million miles away... today!

JUNE 21. A `cosmic conspiracy' brings our neighbour, Mars, closest to us.

The distance ? Oh, it is very small in terms of the Universe. Earth and Mars are separated by just 67 million kilometers.

Also, Mars acquires an unusually large apparent diameter of 20.8 arc-seconds. This is evidently not an everyday event, since both the heavenly bodies have their `paths' cut out. The last time the two were spotted `close' was in 1988. ``That was the year when the orbits of both the Earth and Mars came close,'' says Dr. M. Sargurumoorthy, Executive Director, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre.

Dr. Sargurumoorthy says that at its most distant, Mars is more than 400 million kilometers away from the Earth. For the naked eye, Mars looks like a bright pin-point of light. This distance shrinks every 15 years, allowing us to observe Mars from a closer range. The Red Planet's surface will reveal its form even to a small telescope from her neighbour - Earth.

Earth and Mars line up on the same side of the Sun in June 2001. Guess what this one is named ? Astronomers call this phenomenon ``opposition''.

Now some explanations. If the orbits of Mars and Earth were perfectly circular, the distance between the two planets would be least at the moment of opposition every time. But, the orbits of Earth and Mars are elliptical and so the closest approach between these planets can happen only in about 15 years.

Mars is visible throughout the night after its rise at about 9 p.m. and it is now moving in the constellation Sagittarius.

June 21 is also important to astronomers for another reason. A solar eclipse. This is invisible from India though. The residents of Malagasay, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola in parts of the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean will be luckier - the foot prints partial phase of the eclipse will be visible in most parts of Africa and in most of the eastern parts of South America, Dr. Sargurumoorthy says.

By Akila Dinakar

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