Mars at closer distances
Mars’s rust-coloured plains, dark markings and polar ice become readable as it moves closer. Its apparent size is calculated. A rotating globe combines Viking, Mars Express and Mars Global Surveyor observations with measured terrain. Automatic time-lapse reveals new longitudes; the reconstructed colour and haze do not represent simultaneous weather.
- 6,779 km
- 24.62 hours
- planet
How big would Mars look on an impossibly close pass?
At 32,000 km, Mars spans 12.1° across your sky — about 23 times the width of the full Moon. Light crosses that gap in 0.1 seconds.
Mars becomes a world overhead; broad surface markings hold together across the disc.
How big would Mars look from ninety-six thousand kilometres?
At 96,000 km, Mars spans 4.0° across your sky — about 7.8 times the width of the full Moon. Light crosses that gap in 0.3 seconds.
The rust-coloured surface and polar cap read without magnification.
How big would Mars look if it replaced the Moon?
At 384,400 km, Mars spans 1.0° across your sky — about 2.0 times the width of the full Moon. Light crosses that gap in 1.3 seconds.
Put Mars where the Moon is and it is the wider of the two, because it is nearly twice the diameter.
How big would Mars look from a hundredth of an astronomical unit?
At 1,495,979 km, Mars spans 15.6′ across your sky — about 0.50 times the width of the full Moon. Light crosses that gap in 5.0 seconds.
The disc is unmistakable, but it has receded into the surrounding sky.
How big does Mars look at its closest real approach?
At 54,600,000 km, Mars spans 25.6″ across your sky — a small fraction of the width of the full Moon. Light crosses that gap in 3.0 minutes.
At its closest real approach Mars is still a point of light. No unaided eye resolves a disc.
What Perigee calculates and what it renders
The apparent size is calculated, but the light, colour and environmental treatment are an authored visualization. Perigee does not model heat, radiation, gravity or tides.
How Perigee calculates apparent size