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Closest in 50,000 Years

Every news outlet is reporting that Mars is closest to Earth in 50,000 years.

But who did the calculation? Anybody whom we know?

When was the calculation made? Did Caesar know this? Did Galileo know? Did Newton know? Did Halley?

How much closer was Mars 50,000 years ago than today?

How close will the two planet ever get? When will that happen?

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Posted by Weiqi Gao on August 27, 2003 7:57:09 AM CDT #


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Re: Closest in 50,000 Years

Comment from Eric Burke on August 27, 2003 10:50:53 AM CDT #
You should have listened to NPR this morning. They had a story about this. They answered just about every single one of your questions, including: Who did the calculation, what kind of PC he used, the exact date when Mars was last closer, the exact distance then and now, and even the next date when Mars will be this close again.
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Re: Closest in 50,000 Years

Comment from Brad Shuler on August 27, 2003 11:11:42 PM CDT #
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1413393
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Re: Closest in 50,000 Years

Comment from Weiqi Gao on August 27, 2003 11:47:59 PM CDT #

Thank you for the link. It's very interesting.

Mars is 34,646,418 miles from the Earth right now.

Last time it was closer was 57,617 BC. It was 23,000 miles, or 0.06%, closer.

A Computational Celestial Mechanics expert in University of Naples, Aldo Vitaliano, made the calculation just last year on a 800MHz PC in three hours.

The next time, closer than this one, will be Aug 28, 2287.

And the best thing? I went outside, looked up to the southeastern sky---and there it is, Mars, bright, and brilliant.


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