It's not every day you get to watch a planetary ice cap melt, but this month you can. All you need are clear skies, a backyard telescope, and a sky map leading to Mars. Actually, you won't need the sky map because Mars is so bright and easy to find. Just look south between midnight and dawn on any clear night this month. Mars is that eye-catching red star, outshining everything around it. It's getting brighter every night as Earth and Mars converge for a close encounter on August 27th. Mars has gotten so big in recent weeks that even a backyard telescope will show details on the planet's surface: dust clouds, volcanic terrains, impact basins. Best of all is the polar ice cap. The southern hemisphere of Mars is tipped toward Earth and its bright southern cap, which reflects more sunlight than any other part of the planet, is remarkably easy to see. Don't wait too long to look, though, because the ice is melting. Like Earth, Mars has seasons that cause its polar caps to wax and wane."It's late spring at the south pole of Mars. The polar cap is receding because the sun is shining on it," explains planetary scientist Dave Smith of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Southern summer on Mars begins September 29th; by then much of the polar cap will be gone."
View: Full Article | Source: NASA