Moon and Mars The full Moon has a "full" companion tonight --
the planet Mars. They're low in the east at nightfall, with Mars
a little to the left of the Moon. The planet looks like a
brilliant star -- so bright that its orange color should be
obvious even through the glare of moonlight. Like the full Moon,
Mars is lining up opposite the Sun in our sky. It rises at
sunset, climbs high overhead during the night, and sets around
sunrise. It's brightest for the year, too -- it outshines
everything else in the night sky except the Moon, two other
planets, and one star. This alignment is known as opposition. It
occurs when Earth passes Mars in our planet's smaller, faster
orbit around the Sun. It's the closest approach for the two
planets, which is why Mars looks so bright. Unfortunately, this
isn't a great opposition -- Mars is still 62 million miles away.
A few years ago, it passed just 35 million miles away. It's so
much farther this time because Mars is close to its farthest
point from the Sun. The planet's o