RED PLAN-IT

Stunning photos of Mars as it makes close approach to Earth – how to see it with the naked eye tonight

MARS reached 'opposition' this week, meaning it's been looking big and bright in the night sky.

You should still be able to see the Red Planet tonight so take a look at the amazing photos from this week for inspiration.

Mars reached opposition on October 13.

However, it's still visible with the naked eye in the evenings this week.

This stargazing event happens about every 2 years.

It involves Mars, the Earth and the Sun lining up together.

Nasa : "During opposition, Mars and the sun are on directly opposite sides of Earth.

"From our perspective on our spinning world, Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west.

"Then, after staying up in the sky the entire night, Mars sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east.

"Since Mars and the sun appear on opposite sides of the sky, we say that Mars is in 'opposition'."

Try looking east/southeast about an hour after sunset.

Mars will look around three times bigger than usual so if you have binoculars or a telescope you could get an even better glimpse.

Try looking from an area with limited light pollution.

You can also download a sky scanning app which can tell you exactly what you're looking at just by holding your phone to the sky.

To the untrained eye, Mars will look like a very bright reddish star.

It will be near the constellation of Pisces.

Here's what you need to know about the red planet...

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
It is named after the Roman god of war
The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful

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