Mars/Earth October Close Encounter

I thought this was interesting. Should be an interesting show.
I'm warming up the telescope as we speak!
Anyone know what effects this will have on earth if any?
Side note - in the ASTROLOGY dept - Mars is the God of War
and I was wondering in a non-scientific way ... if anyone
follows astrology (which I don't) does this close encounter
with the God of War planet have any alleged effects astrologically?

science.nasa.gov...

Excerpt

Approaching Mars
By Dr. Tony Phillips
NASA

Earth and Mars will have a breathtaking close encounter in October 2005.

By the time you finish reading this sentence, you'll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars.

Earth is racing toward Mars at a speed of 23,500 mph, which means the red planet is getting bigger and brighter by the minute. In October, when the two planets are closest together, Mars will outshine everything in the night sky except Venus and the Moon. (You're another 50 miles closer: keep reading!)

It's only June, now, but Mars is already eye-catching. You can see it early in the morning, rising before the sun in the eastern sky, shining almost twice as bright as a 1st-magnitude star. A sky map, below, shows where to find Mars on Wednesday morning, June 29th, when it appears pleasingly close to the crescent Moon.

Why are we rushing toward Mars? It's simple orbital mechanics. Think of Earth and Mars as two runners on a circular race track, with lanes corresponding to planetary orbits. Earth, running fast on the inside lane, circles the course in 12 months. Mars, plodding along an outside lane, takes twice as long to go around. Every two years, approximately, Earth catches Mars from behind and laps it.

We won't actually lap Mars until autumn, October 30th at 0319 Universal Time, to be exact. Only 43 million miles (69 million km) will separate us from Mars, then, compared to an average distance of about 140 million miles (225 million kilometers). It's a great time to send spacecraft there.

more at the site -
science.nasa.gov...


[edit on 7/2/2005 by FlyersFan]