New Delhi, Aug 27: A celestial history was made today when the planet Mars had its closest encounter with the Earth, shining in the sky as a bright yellowish-orange disk to the naked eye.
"It came closest to the earth at 3.21 pm (IST). The distance between the two was 55.8 million km ," Dr N Rathnasree, director of Nehru Planetarium which made arrangements for public viewing of Mars, said.

However, Mars was not visible during that point due to daytime. Nevertheless, in the evening, when it rose in the horizon, scores of people here at Nehru Planetarium and British School watched it through telescopes.
Scientists and amateur astronomers worldover have been focussing their telescopes during the past one month when mars began its odyssey towards Earth, to catch a glimpse of its polar ice caps and peculiar surface markings. Pictures have been clicked through sensitive telescopes.
Though Mars was closest to the earth today, closest in last 73,000 years, it is not a one-day phenomenon - Mars has been visible and brightening remarkably in the last one month and will also be visible during September, outshining Jupiter and rivalling Venus. Unlike stars it does not twinkle.

Astronomers have been able to view the southern polar icecap which appears as a white patch through telescope. A dark region identified as ‘Syrpis Major’, which has numerous craters, and the grandest canyon of the solar system known as ‘Vallis Marinaris’ have also been viewed.
Bureau Report