Physics Photo of the Week

Physics Photo of the Week January 24, 2025 The Moon - Mars Occult - Photos by Donald Collins A week ago Monday (January 13, 2025) the Moon actually passed over the planet Mars in the Sky - visible from about all of North America.  This happened in the evening of full Moon.  In this week's photo we can see the image of reddish Mars about 30 seconds before the Moon completely covered Mars.  This is an occultation of Mars by the Moon.  This is a somewhat rare event that happens once in about 14 years visible from a specific location on Earth.  Events like this are not very spectacular - no major changes in the sky brightness as opposed as happens when the Moon is eclipsed by the Earth's shadow, or the even more spectacular occultation of the Sun by the Moon during a total solar eclipse!  Relatively rare events involving interactions of Solar System bodies with each other or with the stars attract enthusiastic astronomy "nerds".  Solar System bodies' orbi...