Mars Surface

The point Mars’ geocentric longitude is 180° different from the Sun's is known as opposition, which is near the time of closest approach to the Earth. The time of opposition can occur as much as 8½ days away from the closest approach. The distance at close approach varies between about 54 and about 103 million km due to the planets' elliptical orbits, which causes comparable variation in angular size. The last Mars opposition occurred on January 29, 2010. The next one will occur on March 3, 2012 at a distance of about 100 million km. The average time between the successive oppositions of Mars, its synodic period, is 780 days but the number of days between the dates of successive oppositions can range from 764 to 812.
As Mars approaches opposition it begins a period of retrograde motion, which makes it appear to move backwards in a looping motion relative to the background stars. The duration of this retrograde motion is about 72 days.
• Absolute, around the present time
Mars made its closest approach to Earth and maximum apparent brightness in nearly 60,000 years, 55,758,006 km (0.372719 AU), magnitude −2.88, on 27 August 2003 at 9:51:13 UT. This occurred when Mars was one day from opposition and about three days from its perihelion, making Mars particularly easy to see from Earth. The last time it came so close is estimated to have been on September 12, 57 617 BC, the next time being in 2287. However, this record approach was only very slightly closer than other recent close approaches. For instance, the minimum distance on August 22, 1924 was 0.37285 AU, and the minimum distance on August 24, 2208 will be 0.37279 AU.