How to see Mars with the naked eye in March – and also spot Orion’s belt nearby
MARS is one of the most fascinating planets to observe, but also one of the most difficult.
If you fancy spotting the red planet this month, it will shine like a pink star a few hours after sunset.
Budding stargazers should look west and to the right of the constellation Taurus.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has recommended looking around March 7.
Once you find Mars, try looking up and to the left and you should see the three stars that make up Orion’s belt.
If it’s cloudy on March 7, it doesn’t matter much to watch another night.
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Once you spot the Red Planet, you can imagine NASA’s Perseverance rover currently searching for life on its surface.
Sometimes smartphones can be useful for pinpointing the location of constellations and planets in the night sky.
You can try downloading an app to point yourself in the right direction.
Just make sure you give your eyes a break from your phone afterwards. Stargazing is best when your eyes are used to the dark.
Stargazing apps for Android and iPhone include SkyView Lite, Star Tracker, and Star Walk 2.
Some apps are free, but many apps require payment, so it depends on whether you want to put up with ads or not.
What does it mean for perseverance?
Despite Ingenuity’s death, Perseverance will continue its work on Mars in search of signs of life.
Perseverance has a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and seven scientific instruments.
1. Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL)
An X-ray gun that will help scientists investigate the composition of rocks on Mars.
2. Radar Imager for the Mars Underground Experiment (RIMFAX)
A ground-penetrating radar that images buried rocks, meteorites and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 meters (33 ft).
3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)
A set of sensors that measure temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure and other atmospheric conditions.
4. Mars oxygen ISRU experiment (MOXIE)
An experiment that will convert carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars. A scaled-up version could be used in the future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.
5. SuperCam
A range of instruments for measuring the composition of rocks and regoliths at a distance
6. Mastcam-Z
A camera system that can create “3D” images by combining two or more photos into one.
7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)
From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will examine Martian rocks for organic compounds.
Before downloading, it is advisable to read the reviews of an app and see how many people have rated it.
The distance between Mars and Earth depends on where the planets are in their orbits around the sun.
Normally, the planet is about 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers) from Earth at its closest distance.
At its furthest, Mars is 400 million kilometers from our planet.
Mars has only two moons: Phobos and Deimos.
It is the second most habitable planet in our solar system, after Earth.
It is not extremely hot or cold and it is believed that there is enough gravity for the human body to adapt.
However, because there is no oxygen, humans would not be able to breathe unless they had their own supply of oxygen.
The soil is toxic, water is scarce and you need protection against radiation and cold.
In July 2023, NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered organic molecules on the planet.
The findings provide new clues that there may once have been life on Mars.
Organic molecules, also known as biosignatures, are chemical compounds normally found in living systems.
“They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists because they are often seen as building blocks of life,” Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral researcher at London’s Natural History Museum, told me. Newsweek.