Opposition Mars meets the full moon on Thursday, its glow outshining all the stars

Mars planet will be opposite the full moon or opposition on December 8, 2022. Here’s how to look celestial phenomenon this evening.

This phenomenon is a configuration when the Sun-Earth-Mars are in a straight line. Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun, so it’s known as “the opposition.”

With this configuration, Mars will be closer to Earth. Indeed, Mars will appear brighter than other nights.

Andi Prince, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency’s Space Research Center (BRIN), said this phenomenon occurs on average once every 25.6 months (2.13 years), with l last phenomenon which occurred on July 27, 2018 and August 23, 2020.

“This year’s Mars opposition will take place on December 8 at 12.35 WIB/13.35 WITA/14.35 WIB,” he said, quoted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s official website.EIGHT), Monday (5/12).

This Mars opposition phenomenon will be observed in Indonesia from the northeast around sunset. Then, Mars culminates in the north with an altitude between 54.3 degrees at Rote Ndao and 70.9 degrees at Sabang City.

Mars visibility ends the next morning in the northwest around dawn. In contrast this time, Mars is 82.2 million kilometers from Earth, with a luminosity of -1.87, “that is 1.5 times brighter than the star Sirius”.

“This is what causes the luminosity of Mars at opposition to vary between -2.88 and -1.22. When compared to the brightest star on Earth which has a magnitude of -1.46; namely Sirius , the brightness of Mars at opposition varies between 0.8 and 3.7 times as bright,” Andi said.

The angular size of Mars reaches 17.0 arcseconds, so its luminosity is only 40 percent of the luminosity when dealing with Mars in 2003 and 2020.

Andi said the planetary opposition can be observed without using optical aids as long as the weather is clear, the field of view is unobstructed, and the observing site is free from light pollution.

Mars opposition will repeat on January 16, 2025 and February 19, 2027. Overall, Andi said. there will be no impact on the inhabitants of the Earth when this phenomenon occurs.

Quoted from Spacepeople who want to see it but are constrained by time can virtually see the location of Mars on the site Virtual telescope.

This time the Mars opposition also coincides with the December full moon phenomenon, which peaks on December 8 at 11.08 WIB/12.08 WITA/13.08 WIT.

This phenomenon marks the culmination of the red planet’s (reverse) retrograde. Mars retrograde started on October 30, 2022 and ended on January 13, 2023.

(can/arh)

[Gambas:Video CNN]