Earthlings watch as Mars looms near
A glance at the southeastern night sky from now until the end of September reveals a sight that will not be seen again for another 284 years. The planet Mars is the closest it has been to Earth in about 60,000 years.
The Utah State University physics department celebrated the event by holding a Mars party for USU students and local residents Tuesday, Aug. 26.
Some people said they thought the event started at 9 p.m. because of an announcement they heard on the radio. The event actually started at 10 p.m. with a presentation about Mars by Tonya Caldwell, a USU astronomy class instructor, in the Eccles Science Learning Center Emert Auditorium.
“I was very disappointed what I heard on the radio is not what happened here,” said Pat Canning, a resident from Hyrum.
Canning said it would be helpful to residents if there were signs on the door verifying that they had come to the right spot.
Caldwell gave the reasons for the party, then gave an overview of the studying and exploration of Mars.
Mars is just more than 34.5 million miles away from Earth, but Caldwell did not want anyone to be alarmed. “I don’t want you to think we are in any danger of collision,” she said. “Everything is going to be great.”
She did warn that the pictures she showed would be much better than the view from the nine telescopes the physics department set up for viewing following the presentation.
“I’m hoping to see the Hubble view, but realism says that we’re not going to see that tonight,” she said.
Jay Chambers, a junior in business marketing, was hoping to see something neat through the telescope, but was disappointed.
“I saw about what I see now, through the telescope,” he said.
Mars is at its closest point to the sun while Earth is opposite of the position of Mars, Caldwell said.
Caldwell also said the red color that is associated with Mars is not actually the color of the planet. It is more of a brown color, but our eyes produce an optical illusion when they compare the planet to its black background, she said.
Caldwell reviewed Nicolaus Copernicus’ theory that the sun was actually the center of the solar system. She also talked about Johannes Kepler’s discovery of three laws of planetary motion that helped prove Copernicus’ theory.
Giovanni Schiaparelli’s diagrams of channels on the surface of Mars prompted searches for life on Mars, Caldwell said. The results showed that the thermal temperatures on the planet are too cold to support life on Mars, she said.
Caldwell said another reason people held out hope for life on Mars was the color changes of the planet. People believed the different colors to be patches of land and water.
“The first landings in the 1970s removed all of our illusions about Mars,” Caldwell said.
The landings only found barren land, with no hope of life. It has now been proved there is water in Mars’ ice caps, giving rise to hope again, she said.
Following the presentation, students and residents made their way out to the Quad to view Mars through the telescopes.
Due to cloudiness, the physics department scheduled a second Mars party for Thursday, Aug. 28.