These pictures are of Mars our neighbouring planet.
The photograph on the right is Mars in it's natural place from the earth.
The one on the left was taken back in August 2003.
This was the closest mars had been to Earth for over many, many years. Mars has always moved in a 'boomerang' fashion, coming close to the Earth and then moving back out into space. But on this occasion it was so close you could actually see a red glow on the Earth's surface and many photos was taken of this occurrence. It was so unusual.
Normal distance from Earth:
173 million miles
On this occasion it was only:
34.65 million miles away from the Earth.
No-one really knows why it came so close.
It will be a long time before this happens again.
1 comment:
I love looking at these pictures of the planets, I was watching the moon last night, clear sky and clear moon - just too lazy to get my scope out for a closer look.
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