July 24, 2003
Billions of years of cosmic evolution — the birth and death of stars, the slow coalescence of planets, the patient unfolding of life — all...
Mars at the Moon's Edge
Birthday · July 24, 2003
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APOD published July 24, 2003. Credit: Ron Dantowitz, Clay Center Observatory at Dexter and Southfield Schools. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What was that bright "star" near the Moon last week? Mars of course, as the Red Planet wandered near the waning gibbous Moon early last Thursday morning, passing behind the lunar orb when viewed from some locations in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Florida. The Clay Center Observatory expedition to Bonita Springs, Florida produced this evocative picture of Mars grazing the Moon's dark edge by digitally stacking and processing a series of telescopic images of the event. With the cratered Moon in the foreground, the bright planet Mars seems alarmingly close, its global scale features and white south polar cap easily visible. Already impressive, the apparent size of the martian disk will continue to grow in the coming weeks, until, on August 27, Mars reaches its closest approach to planet Earth in over 50,000 years.
Image credit: Ron Dantowitz, Clay Center Observatory at Dexter and Southfield Schools