This year, Mars appears its brightest in the night sky, beginning from May 18 to June 3. Today, May 30, Mars will be at its closest approach with our planet, about 46.8 million miles away, which is also the closest distance ever between Mars and Earth in 11 years, since October 5, 2005.

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Today, Mars will be so close to Earth but not too close though, as an amateur telescope can only see so little, such as a faint polar cap or dusty swathes of clouds on the Red Planet. However, astronomers using ground observatories and powerful space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope will take advantage of this event, where they will study the dark areas of the dusty planet which are the Mare Erythraeum and Solis Lacus, which are named after seas and lakes on the moon as imaginary bodies of water on the otherwise arid world.

Back in 2003, Mars was so close to Earth, the closest ever in 60,000 years which will not happen again until 2287. Why is this so? Both Earth and Mars do not have perfect circular orbits which means that there is a certain tug of war between the planets with their gravitational forces that shape their orbits. Since Mars is nearer to Jupiter, Jupiter possesses a stronger effect on Mars than Earth towards Mars.

The next closest approach of Mars to Earth will be in July 31, 2018 which will be even more close than today's.

These closest approaches have a pattern though, as they happen every 26 months during a time when Mars and Earth are the closest. During this time, NASA mission scientists also launch space missions to Mars to cut down on space travel, taking advantage of this shorter distance.

Almost every night, skywatchers can see Mars as a bright reddish star with a steady light, that does not twinkle. At nightfall, Mars is seen on the eastern sky and and high in the sky during midnight, and in the western sky just before dawn. Mars will rise today at 10:15 P.M. EDT and will disappear in the early dawn sky.

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