Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel
Explanation:
This composite of images spaced about a week apart -
from late July 2005 (bottom right) through February 2006
(top left) - traces the
retrograde motion
of ruddy-colored Mars through planet
Earth's
night sky.
On November 7th, 2005 the Red Planet was
opposite the Sun in Earth's sky
(at opposition).
That date occurred at the center of this series with Mars near its
closest and brightest.
But Mars
didn't actually reverse the direction of its orbit
to
trace out the Z-shape.
Instead, the apparent backwards or retrograde motion with
respect to the background stars is a
reflection of the motion of the Earth itself.
Retrograde motion
can be seen
each time Earth overtakes
and laps planets orbiting farther from the Sun, the
Earth moving more rapidly through its own relatively close-in orbit.
The familiar Pleiades star cluster
lies at the upper left.
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr' |
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami:
Mars - Mars - popyatnoe dvizhenie
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