BOULDER, Colo.
Tomorrow morning, Mars will be brighter and closer to Earth than at any time in recorded history. But have you seen it?
Tonight, look to the Southeast as evening deepens. Look up and due south as midnight nears. Wherever you are, if the night isn't cloudy, you'll see it. Living in the city is no excuse: Mars' brightness easily defeats light pollution and murky air. The planet now appears directly opposite from the Sun, rising at sunset and occupying center stage in the late summer midnight sky.
Here at the edge of the Rockies, there are places where lights have wiped the sky clear of all attractions. The other night I was driving near Denver, and at one point you crest a hill and the entire city sprawls out before you, as if all the stars had fallen and piled up on the ground. Except for Mars; it hung over the city like the Great Pumpkin.
If you're an urbanite, you may have to walk a few blocks to get a clear southern view, but the red planet won't be hard to find. Unlike some more subtle celestial apparitions, Mars at its brightest is usually the only thing up there. Mars — ancient god of war, muse for scientists, poets and radio pranksters — is not cowed. Take a good look, because Mars — passing within 35 million miles — won't be this close again for another 284 years.
Earth viewed from Mars would also be resplendent this summer, appearing first as a brilliant evening star at dusk, disappearing into the Sun at closest approach and reappearing as a morning star later in the fall. Perhaps the next time the two planets pass this close, on Aug. 28, 2287, there will be humans on Mars looking back at Earth. On that night, will our descendants see city lights dotting the surface of Mars, or of Earth, through their backyard telescopes?
The last time Mars came this close, there were no cities. Human beings were, by some accounts, brand new to this planet. The last folks to see such a sight lived nearly 60,000 years ago. Neanderthals walked in Europe then, but most of us might have still been in Africa. No doubt we wondered at the incredible brightening of the great red sky-wanderer. The global human wanderings were just beginning. Now Mars looms as a possible destination for a continuing human diaspora beyond Earth, our planetary Africa.
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