<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center border=0><TD class=articleheaderfont vAlign=bottom>Mars to be closest to earth on Tuesday evening<TD height=5><!-- ~~|ByLine|ArticleContentFont|height="5px"|byline|520|10| ~~--><TD class=articleagencyfont><TD height=5><TD class=articlecontentfont><TD height=5><TD class=overviewfont colSpan=2>The two worlds will lie only 55 million miles apart. Mars won't be this near again until the year 2016, said NASA scientists in their spaceweather alert report.<TD height=5><!-- ~~|123Dop123|ArticleContentFont|height="5px"|DoP|520|10|~~ --><TD class=ArticleContent>Skygazers can have a feast of observing Planet Mars today as it would be at its best and brightest on Tuesday evening.<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> According to astronomers, the intense red planet will remain unusually close to earth this week and will approach the nearest on Tuesday evening. People will be able to view it in the eastern sky every evening in the coming weeks, astronomers said. The two worlds will lie only 55 million miles apart. Mars won't be this near again until the year 2016, said NASA scientists in their spaceweather alert report. <TABLE style="FLOAT: right" valign="middle"><TD vAlign=center><TABLE class=font borderColor=red cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TD width="100%"><TABLE borderColor=green cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TD align=middle width="100%"><!-- --------------------------------------------- --><!-- MooterMedia Javascript Ad Snippet starts here --><!-- Do not edit the following lines --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>mooter_page_section="AdUnit2";</SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://advantage20.mootermedia.com/p13456307618173559308/t5/ads.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><!-- MooterMedia Javascript Ad Snippet ends here --><!-- --------------------------------------------- --><TD height=5><TD align=middle width="100%"><TD height=5>To the naked eye, Mars now outshines every star in the night sky (it is slightly brighter than Sirius) and it looks great through a backyard telescope, they said. The close encounter of Mars and earth can also be observed on the website SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids, which will post observing tips, photos and sky maps for those wanting to enjoy this celestial phenomenon.
