Mars nods to the Sun

Mars has its northern summer solstice on July 12. That is, its north pole leans most toward the Sun, so that its north polar icecap is shrunken but most in view.

Here is the space view of Mars’s orbit from page 115 of Astronomical Calendar 2023, greatly simplified by removing details except for the tracks of Earth and Mars and the arrow indicating the axis of Mars’s rotation, so that you can see why, this July, the planet’s north pole is most tilted toward the Sun.

 

__________

This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.

ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format.  You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.  One way: right-click, and choose “View image” or “Open image in new tab”, then enlarge.  Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it.  On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers).  Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

One thought on “Mars nods to the Sun”

Write a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.