Red Alert

Tonight is the best night in two years to gaze at the Red Planet:

Astronomers call this event an opposition because, if you could look down on the solar system from above, you’d see Mars, the Earth and the sun in a line, with Earth in between. In other words, when we pass between Mars and the sun, Mars appears opposite the sun: in opposition to the sun, according to the language of astronomy.

(Image source: NASA)