Mars up close: a dust storm on another planet you can see with the naked eye

Mars is approaching the Earth — 27 July there will be great opposition of the red planet. Currently, Mars outshines all the objects in the sky except the Sun, moon and Venus. In addition, the planet is doing what can do only very bright objects — for example, during observations you can see the green flash.

This video Peter Rosen withdrew July 12, from Stockholm in Sweden. According to him, Mars was shining brightly in the morning sky at a height of only 6.5° above the horizon. He managed to combine the received sequence of frames in an image displaying some features of the surface, visible through the dust storm that engulfed the planet. In the picture you can see tiny bluish polar caps. Green flashes can be the result of strong atmospheric refraction, causing rays of red and green spectrum are separated. A similar phenomenon can sometimes be seen during sunset when the orange-red range suddenly lights up for a split second green beam.

But that's not all. Mars also "creates" their own "glow track". Alan Dyer took this picture on the beach of Driftwood in a national Park and Waterton lakes in Alberta (Canada). Path of light — a strip of light on water, which appears as a result of reflections from the ridges of the small waves. Typically, they are comprised only of the Sun and Moon (and sometimes Venus and Jupiter). Now it makes and Mars.

Dyer notes that Mars was a bright yellow — partial shade caused by severe dust storm. Only cost to consider: dust storm on another planet, which you can see with the naked eye. This means that Mars is close. Although there are still 2 weeks before closest approach, Mars is almost 3 times brighter than Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) and 30% brighter than giant Jupiter.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»