The night of January 14 will be recorded in the diaries of the observatories of the Canary Islands as the one in which Mars disappeared from the sky: it lasted only an hour and was an expected event, like all those that occur cyclically... but this will not be repeated until 2056.
It was the Moon's fault, which, due to its position in its rotation around the Earth -and that of Mars in its orbit- covered the Red Planet for anyone who looked at it from this area of the Atlantic, according to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) this Friday.
To round off the ephemeris, the phenomenon coincided just at the moment when the position of Mars in the sky was the opposite to the Sun and as close as possible to the Earth. That is, when it shines the most at night and when it can be seen in more detail.
"In this distribution of the stars, the Moon has no choice but to be in the full moon phase when it crosses in front of the planet, quite a spectacle," summarizes the IAC.
The staff of the observatories of the Canary Islands recorded everything in a 'time-lapse', an accelerated sequence of photos that condenses just over an hour in just 41 seconds. In it, it seems that Mars travels through the sky until it hides behind the Moon.
Actually, it happens the other way around, the IAC specifies: "It is the Moon that, in its rapid orbit around the Earth, travels in front of the planet." For those who look at the sky from the Canary Islands, the spectacle will be repeated in 31 years.
The night Mars disappeared from the sky
It was the Moon's fault, which, due to its position in its rotation around the Earth -and that of Mars in its orbit- covered the Red Planet for anyone who looked at it from this area of the Atlantic, according to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands
January 17 2025 (19:56 WET)
