Next Monday, January 30, from 11 p.m. to 12:28 p.m. on Tuesday the 31st, the Moon will pass over the planet Mars, hiding it. We will see it with the naked eye, without the need for binoculars or a telescope. What happens during an occultation? The planets around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth are almost in the same plane. However, there are slight tilts in the orbits of the planets and the Moon, which causes them to occasionally coincide in position. For this reason, it is the case that at some point the Moon hides the Sun (an eclipse of the Sun) or a planet. It may interest you: Emergency on the International Space Station? The rescue of the Soyuz MS-22 Although the occultations of the planets by the Moon are not rare, they are infrequent, at least for the anxiety of humans.
