Moon, Mars, Saturn and Regulus
The photo, taken on 5 July 2008, shows the conjunction of the Moon, Mars, Saturn and Regulus, the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Leo, The Lion. Mars shines as a bright star between Regulus and Saturn, the uppermost of the three star-like objects, visible above center.

On the evening of Thursday, 25 March 2010, the Moon and Mars will be in conjunction, a wonderful astronomical phenomenon, in which two or more celestial bodies are visible close together, near the line of sight. The Moon-Mars conjunction will be observable in the skies of Egypt and all the Arab countries. Mars, the Red Planet, will shine as a bright reddish star, near the Moon.

Certainly, there is no chance of collision between the Moon, our faithful companion, and Mars, as the Moon, orbiting Earth in an elliptical orbit, is 384,000 km away, on average, and Mars never comes closer to our blue planet than about 55 million km.

On 25 March, the Moon will be approximately 360,000 km from Earth, while Mars will be about 144 million km away. Therefore, the distance of Mars will be slightly smaller than the average distance between Earth and the Sun.

To view the conjunction, the observer should only spot the Moon. The Moon will be high in the sky, near the zenith, the point directly over head, in the early evening hours of 25 March. The Moon will be nearly 10 days old, and 75% of its disc will be illuminated. There will also be three bright stars in the vicinity of the Moon: Castor, Pollux and Procyon, but Mars is considerably brighter than these stars.

Throughout history, Mars, the fourth planet, has intrigued, and inspired mankind. It has played a major role in most of the ancient mythologies. In ancient Egypt, it was known as Hor Desher “the red Horus”. In the Greek and Roman mythologies, Mars was deified as the god of war.
Mars (approximately 6,800 km across) is a small rocky planet. Earth (12,756 km across) is nearly twice larger than Mars, in diameter.

Interestingly, the ratio between the sizes of Earth and Mars is similar to that between the sizes of the tennis ball and the ping pong ball. The terrestrial mass, of approximately 6 × 1024 kg, is about ten times that of Mars. The surface of Mars is red, due to the presence of iron oxide. Mars is the planet most similar to Earth. Scientists even believe the soil of Mars can harbor microbial life.

Mars takes 687 days, or about 22.5 months, to orbit the Sun once. Therefore, the Martian year is nearly twice longer than Earth’s year of approximately 365.25 days, but the day on Mars is only 39 minutes longer than that of Earth, as Mars lasts 24.65 hours, to turn once about its axis.

Further Reading

NASA’s All About Mars
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/