Mars – Astronomy Now

InSight lander now halfway to Mars, on track for November landing

20 August 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s InSight spacecraft has passed the halfway point to Mars and remains on track for a 26 November landing in the Elysium Planitia region where it will become the first probe to study the red planet’s deep interior.

NASA stands by for Mars Opportunity wake up as dust storm abates

18 August 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA has not heard from the Opportunity Mars rover since it fell silent 10 June as a global dust storm blanketed the red planet, but engineers are hopeful the long-lived robot will wake up soon as the storm abates.

Find Martian moons Phobos and Deimos at the Red Planet’s closest approach

30 July 2018 Ade Ashford

Do you like extreme observing challenges? If you own a quality telescope of 25-cm (10-inch) aperture or larger and have excellent sky conditions, then you might just glimpse Phobos and Deimos, the diminutive moons of Mars around the time that the Red Planet is closest to Earth on 31 July.

Hubble captures new views of Mars and Saturn near opposition

26 July 2018 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope captured stunning new views of Mars and Saturn as the planets neared opposition, lined up with Earth and the Sun. Mars remains obscured by a global dust storm.

Mars Express finds evidence of liquid water under Martian pole

25 July 2018 Astronomy Now

ESA’s Mars Express satellite, using ground-penetrating radar, has detected what appears to be a pool of liquid water below the red planet’s south polar region, a potentially habitable environment.

Now you see it, now you don’t; before and after a global dust storm

20 July 2018 William Harwood

Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provide dramatic before-and-after shots of Mars showing the impact of a global dust storm that has obscured the surface.

See the Moon join a midnight planetary parade from 21–28 July

19 July 2018 Ade Ashford

If clear skies persist, observers in the UK can view four naked-eye planets between now and the end of the month. Brightest planet Venus is visible low in the west some 45 minutes after sunset, while the waxing Moon is your celestial pointer to Jupiter, Saturn and Mars between 21 and 28 July at midnight.

View the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century on 27 July

12 July 2018 Ade Ashford

Friday, 27 July sees the second total lunar eclipse of 2018, which also happens to be the longest of the 21st century. Observers in Antarctica, Australasia, Russia, Asia, Africa, Scandanavia, Europe, Central and Eastern South America will see the event. The Moon rises at mid-eclipse as seen from the British Isles, some 6 degrees north of Mars at opposition.

Martian dust storm makes presence known in Gale Crater

22 June 2018 Astronomy Now

The global dust storm now blanketing Mars that has at least temporarily sidelined the solar-powered Opportunity rover also is dimming the sky above Gale Crater where the Curiosity rover is hard at work

Explosive volcanoes on Mars explain mysterious rock formation

20 June 2018 Astronomy Now

A huge deposit of porous rock straddling the Martian equator likely formed as a result of explosive volcanoes erupting three billion years ago that were powered by climate-changing volatile gases trapped in the red planet’s interior