How to see Mars with the naked eye

MARS is one of the most fascinating planets to observe, but also one of the most difficult.

If you fancy trying to spot the red planet in 2024, it will become brighter in the night sky as the year progresses.

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The distance between Mars and Earth depends on where the planets are in their orbits of the Sun.

Earth and Mars are the third and fourth planets from the Sun but are not always the same distance apart due to gravitational pull, and elliptical (egg-shaped) paths.

They are also slightly tilted with respect to each other and rotating at different speeds.

Mars Close Approach – when the red planet is closest to Earth – happens every 26 months.

At its closest the planet is around 33.9million miles (54.6m kilometres) away from Earth.

At its furthest Mars is 250 million miles away from our planet.

The next Close Approach will not happen until January 2025.

Despite this the planet began to be visible in the night’s sky from February 2024, but is faint and best viewed before sunrise in the east.

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It will remain faint in the sky until the equinox in September, when it will appear brighter as we head towards the Close Approach on January 12, 2025.

Once you spot the red planet you’ll be able to imagine Nasa‘s Perseverance rover which landed on the planet on February 18, 2021.

The rover is studying rocks and searching for signs of past and present life.

Sometimes smartphones can be useful to point out the location of constellations and planets in the night sky.

You can try downloading an app to point yourself in the right direction.

Make sure you give your eyes a break from your phone afterwards though, stargazing is best when your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

Stargazing apps for Android and iPhone include SkySafari 7 Pro, SkyView Lite, and Star Walk 2.

Some apps are free but a lot of them charge so it depends if you want to put up with adverts or not.

Mars facts

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

It’s advisable to read the reviews of an app and look at how many people have rated it before downloading.

Mars has just two moons – Phobos and Deimos.

It is the second most habitable planet in our Solar System, after Earth.

It’s not extremely hot or cold and it’s thought to have enough gravity for the human body to be able to adapt.

However, as there is no oxygen, humans wouldn’t be able to breathe unless they had their own oxygen supply.

The soil is toxic, water is scarce and you’d need protection from radiation and the cold.

In July 2023, Nasa’s Perseverance rover uncovered organic molecules on the planet.

The findings provide fresh clues that there could have been life once on Mars.

Also known as biosignatures, organic molecules are chemical compounds normally found in living systems.

Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral fellow at London’s Natural History Museum told Newsweek: “They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists since they are often thought of as building blocks of life.”

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk