What would Jupiter look like from Mars?

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absolutezero

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I have always wondered, if you had the chance to stand on the surface of Mars, on a martian night, what would Jupiter look like? Would it be large enough in the sky to show actual details of the planet with the naked eye or would it be still just a dot in the sky?
 
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silylene old

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At conjunction, you might see Jupiter's four largest moons (possibly require obscuring Jupiter behind a knife edge). And maybe, if you had a good pinhole viewer and excellent eyes, you might just be able to make out Jupiter's disk (as you can with Venus from Earth). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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thalion

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Actually, Jupiter wouldn't look much different on Mars than it does from Earth. It would be slightly larger and brighter, but the difference would not be dramatic.<br /><br />
 
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CalliArcale

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You don't need to wonder. It's been photographed from Mars! Well, from Mars orbit anyway.<br /><br />Mars Global Surveyor took this picture (which is very long and skinny, so I've linked it instead of attaching it to the post, because it'll mess up the formatting of the thread): PIA04532: Jupiter and its Galilean Satellites as viewed from Mars <br /><br />It is not what you'd see with the naked eye, of course. This is what you'd see with a telescope. Mars definitely gets closer to Jupiter than Earth does -- but it gets further away too, depending on where it is in its orbit when you're looking for Jupiter. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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centsworth_II

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<font color="yellow">"Mars definitely gets closer to Jupiter than Earth does -- but it gets further away too..."</font><br /><br />Good point!<img src="/images/icons/shocked.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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silylene old

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Yup, that's why you'd be able to see a disc at conjunction - if you had excellent eyes. A pinhole viewer would help.<br /><br />When I was younger, I could see the orientation of Venus's "horns" when the planet approached conjunction and it's disc got large, if I used a pinhole viewer. A binoculars confirmed I was correct. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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tony873004

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How does a pinhole viewer work? Do you look through it, or project the image?
 
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iron_sun_254

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As an aside, I read somewhere that if Jupiter were in the same orbit Mars now occupies, it would be nearly the same size as the moon at it's nearest approach
 
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silylene old

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Just look through it, quite close to the eye. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>
 
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thalion

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Because I have no life, I decided to do some hard soft math on the problem. I used Orbits 3.0 (a rather old orrery program), the "Jupiter Fact Sheet," and the famous "Solar System Simulator." to arrive at these answers.<br /><br />The fact sheet tells us that Jupiter's largest apparent size is 49 arcseconds, and that it's maximum brightness is -2.94. I chose two dates to examine--one when Jupiter was near opposition with Mars, and at its perihelion (May 1, 2011), and the other when Jupiter was at aphelion and near opposition with respect to Mars (February 21, 2018).<br /><br />First of all, the advantage of Mars's greater distance from the Sun is not really capitalized on, since Mars and Jupiter reach perihelion and aphelion at nearly the same points in their orbits. <br /><br />In any event, on May 1 2011, Jupiter will show a disc of 55.14 arcseconds from Mars. This is only a little more than 6 arcseconds wider than it appears from Earth, though the planet will also be some 27% brighter, nudging it up to around magnitude -3.2. <br /><br />On February 21, 2018, Jupiter will subtend 51.22 seconds of arc--larger than it ever gets from Earth, but not by much--and appear only 9% brighter than it does from Earth at its best, or around magnitude -3.03.<br /><br />
 
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