不要錯過與火星的約會

不要錯過與火星的約會

NASA's diagram of Mars opposition shows the Sun, the Earth and Mars lining up every two years.

美國宇航局的火星對沖圖顯示，太陽、地球和火星每兩年排成一排。

Stargazers perk up — Mars is getting big and bright the coming week, as the sun, Earth and Mars line up close to a new moon on the night of Oct. 13.

觀星者們興奮起來——火星在接下來的一周變得越來越大，越來越明亮，因為10月13日晚上，太陽、地球和火星排成一條直線，接近一顆新月。

The event that happens about every two years is called "opposition" in astronomy terms: the sun and Mars on opposite sides of Earth. From the earthling's perspective, according to NASA, Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west, and would stay up in the sky the whole night, setting in the west just as the sun rises.

這種每兩年發(fā)生一次的事件，在天文學中稱為“對沖”：太陽和火星位于地球的兩端。根據(jù)美國宇航局的說法，從地球的角度看，火星在東方升起，就像太陽在西方落下一樣，它會在天空中停留一整夜，太陽升起時，它就在西方落下。

Because we're seeing the whole dayside of the red planet the whole week, it's going to be ideal for viewing, writes Mikhail Kreslavsky, assistant research planetary scientist at University of California, Santa Cruz, in an email to NPR.

加州大學圣克魯茲分校的行星研究助理科學家米哈伊爾·克雷斯拉夫斯基在給美國國家公共電臺的一封郵件中寫道，因為我們整個星期都能看到這顆紅色星球的白天，它將是理想的觀測對象。

And because this year's opposition is also close to the new moon, Mars will shine brighter without moonlight hampering, he writes.

他寫道，由于今年的“對沖”距離新月也很近，火星將在沒有月光阻礙的情況下更加明亮。

Mars and Earth come nearest to each other in their orbits around the sun. That happened on Oct. 6. Therefore, Mars is pretty large in size.

火星和地球在它們繞太陽的軌道上是最接近的。這件事發(fā)生在10月6日。因此，火星的體積相當大。

"[Usually] for people who are amateur astronomers with a decent-sized telescope, Mars would still look like a dot," astronomer Derek Demeter told the podcast last week.

天文學家德里克·德米特上周告訴播客:“(通常)對于那些業(yè)余天文愛好者來說，如果他們使用的是尺寸合適的望遠鏡，火星看起來還是像個點。”

"Now we're getting really close to Mars, the apparent size has tripled almost [in the telescope]" said Demeter, who directs Seminole State College's planetarium.

塞米諾爾州立大學天文館主任德墨特爾說:“現(xiàn)在我們真的很接近火星了，(在望遠鏡里)火星表面的大小幾乎增加了兩倍。”