Mars will disappear from Earth’s sky for 2 weeks beginning Saturday.
That is because of a scientific phenomenon generally known as photo voltaic conjunction: a interval throughout which the solar obscures Mars and Earth from one another.
“Like dancers on either side of a huge bonfire,” NASA said, “the two planets are temporarily invisible to each other.”
Earth and Mars expertise photo voltaic conjunction each two years, NASA stated. Space.com reported that the 2 planets have been a median of 140 million miles aside — however throughout photo voltaic conjunction, they’re going to be separated by about 235 million miles.
Photo voltaic conjunction additionally impacts NASA’s potential to speak with and ship indicators to spacecraft on Mars.
“It’s impossible to predict what information might be lost due to interference from charged particles from the Sun, and that lost information could potentially endanger the spacecraft,” NASA said. “Instead, prior to solar conjunction, engineers send two weeks’ worth of instructions and wait.”
The 2023 moratorium on commanding Mars spacecraft is from November 11 to November 25, NASA added.
However scientists have emphasised that this does not imply missions to Mars will get any day without work.
“Our mission teams have spent months preparing to-do lists for all our Mars spacecraft,” Roy Gladden, the supervisor of the Mars Relay Community, said in a NASA statement.
“We’ll still be able to hear from them and check their states of health over the next few weeks.”
This text was initially revealed by Business Insider.
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