Mars is brighter than it has been in years. Get out there and see it.
The red planet is popular with science fiction enthusiasts and space scientists alike, and now, thanks to a fortunate cosmic alignment, everyone can get in on the Martian action.
On Friday, Mars will be directly across from the sun from Earth's perspective. Just days later, on July 31, the planet will make its closest approach to Earth — just about 35.8 million miles from our planet.
That's the nearest Mars has been to Earth since 2003, according to NASA.
Which means there's only one thing to do: Check out the red planet.
On a clear night, the rusty world won't be hard to identify.
“When you first spot Mars rising in the east after sunset, you’ll be startled by how bright it looks,” Diana Hannikainen, Sky & Telescope’s observing editor, said in a statement. “Its pale orange color is unmistakable.”
You can even see it with your naked eye if you know where to look.
Mars resembles an unblinking, red-tinged star in the night sky, and it should be one of the brightest objects around these days.
"By the end of July, Mars will be visible at sunset. But the best time to view it is several hours after sunset, when Mars will appear higher in the sky," NASA said in a skywatching video.
"Mars will still be visible after July and August, but each month it will shrink in apparent size as it travels farther from Earth in its orbit around the sun."
Your view of the planet will be even better through a backyard telescope or binoculars.
A little magnification can allow even inexperienced skywatchers to check out surprising details, and this year, you might even be able to see the huge dust storm raging in the planet's atmosphere.
That storm has put NASA's Opportunity rover into hibernation mode as it waits for the tempest to pass.
And while that has researchers on Earth worried about the long-lived robot, studying the dust storm itself is fascinating from a scientific perspective.
"This is one of the largest weather events that we've seen on Mars," NASA scientist Michael Smith said in a statement. "Having another example of a dust storm really helps us to understand what's going on."
If you need a little extra help to spot Mars, download an app like Star Walk, which gives you a detailed, location-based guide to what you're seeing in the night sky.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
