For next April 8 a strange cosmic phenomenon is planned: a planetary alignment will take place, in which we, by the way, will participate. At 8:00 p.m. Universal Time (at 10:00 p.m. in Spain), planet Earth and planet Mars will reach the point in their orbit where they draw a perfect line in conjunction with the Sun. The alignment of the three celestial bodies will make us see the red planet in the celestial vault on the opposite side to that of the star, which explains why this event is called the “opposition of Mars”.
The opposition of an outer planet takes place when the Sun, the Earth and said planet align. In the case of Mars, this astronomical event occurs every 778 days (two years, one month and 18 days) , since the Earth completes one revolution around the Sun in half the time of Mars, so it must travel one distance greater than that of its orbit to meet the planet again.
During the days leading up to the opposition, the planet Mars is considerably reducing its distance from ours by approaching about 300 kilometers per minute . However, it will not be until days later, on Monday the 14th, when the minimum distance point is reached: 92 million kilometers. This is due to the fact that the Earth’s orbit is practically circular, but that of Mars is rather elliptical, as Kepler discovered, which causes the distance between the two to vary, and the alignment with the perihelion (point of the orbit closest to the Sun) or with the aphelion (point of the orbit furthest from the Sun).
However, at the time of opposition, it will already separate us at a ridiculous distance on the spatial scale, which will make it the perfect target planet for telescopes and also for the eyes of the most avid, since it will present a larger apparent size. and an orange glow almost ten times brighter than that of a first-magnitude star once the sun sets in the west .
Astronomers therefore recommend observing the planet during its opposition but also during the following days, especially at dawn on the 15th , when it accompanies a reddened moon as a result of the shadow cast by the Earth.
