View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Vedant Pandey of India submitted this composite image of Mars racing toward its January 2025 opposition. Vedant wrote: “I used my 5-inch Maksutov telescope and smartphone camera to capture Mars over a period of 10 months.” Thank you, Vedant!
Mars can appear bright or faint in our sky depending on its distance from Earth. 2024 was mostly a faint year, but Mars began steadily brightening by the end of the year. It was very noticeable in January 2025, as bright as the sky’s brightest star. It won’t be at its brightest again until February 2027.
in 2025 Mars grows fainter as its distance from Earth increases after its last opposition – when Earth passed between it and the sun, making Mars closest and brightest – on January 15-16, 2025. Mars will fade more each month as the distance grows between Earth and Mars.
Watch for Mars! In August 2025, it’s in the western sky as darkness falls. It’ll remain in the evening sky through early October. And the moon will pass close to Mars in the evening sky on August 25 and 26.
Opposition for Mars last fell on January 15-16, 2025. That’s when our planet Earth last flew between Mars and the sun. Mars will reach opposition again in February 2027. Mars was closest to Earth at 14 UTC on January 12, 2025. It was 5.3 light-minutes away at a distance of 0.642 astronomical units (59,703,891 miles or 96,084,099 kilometers). By the end of August 2025, Mars will be 205,432,334 miles (330,611,294 kilometers) away from Earth. How to see Mars in the sky: Mars is now about as bright as our brightest stars. Mars will be near the moon on August 25 and 26. Note: Mars reaches opposition about every 26 months, or about every two Earth years. Its next opposition will be in February 2027.
Finder charts for Mars
In the month of August, Mars will lie in the west as evening twilight fades. It’ll be near Spica, the brightest star in Virgo the Maiden. Mars will be descending more each night this month, setting about an hour after sunset by month’s end. Earth is speeding ahead of Mars now in its orbit around the sun. As a result, the distance between us and Mars is increasing, and Mars will fade to 1.6 magnitude by the end of the month. Chart via EarthSky.Shortly after sunset on August 25, the thin waxing crescent moon moon will float just above the western horizon. It will lie near Mars in the evening twilight. Nearby is the bright star Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. Then, on the following evening, the crescent moon – full with earthshine – will shine between Mars and Spica. Chart via EarthSky.
Sometimes, Mars is bright
Mars’ dramatic swings in brightness (and its red color) are why the early stargazers named Mars for their god of war.
Sometimes the war god rests. And sometimes he grows fierce! These changes are part of the reason Mars is so fascinating to watch in the night sky.
When Mars passes opposition, every 2 years, it appears large and bright for only a few weeks. The panel above shows the change in Mars’ apparent size from November 20, 2024, to March 12, 2025. Mars appeared 14.6 arcseconds wide on January 15, 2025. Image via Dominic Ford/ In-The-Sky.org. Used with permission.As Mars races away from Earth after its last opposition in January 2025, it shrinks in apparent size and decreases in brightness. Chart via Guy Ottewell’s 2025 Astronomical Calendar. Used with permission.
To understand why Mars varies so much in brightness in Earth’s sky, first realize that it isn’t a very big world. It’s only 4,219 miles (6,790 km) in diameter, making it only slightly more than half Earth’s size (7,922 miles or 12,750 km in diameter).
On the other hand, consider Mars in contrast to Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is 86,881 miles (140,000 km) in diameter. As an illustration, more than 20 planets the size of Mars could be lined up side by side in front of Jupiter. Basically, Jupiter always looks bright, because it’s so big.
Not so for little Mars, however. Rather, its extremes in brightness have to do with its nearness (or lack of nearness) to Earth.
Mars isn’t very big, so its brightness – when it is bright – isn’t due to its bigness, as is true of Jupiter. Mars’ brightness, or lack of brightness, is all about how close we are to the red planet. It’s all about where Earth and Mars are, relative to each other, in their respective orbits around the sun. Image via NASA.
Future Martian oppositions
As mentioned above, the next opposition of Mars – when will appear at its brightest in Earth’s sky for that two-year period – will be February 2027. At the 2027 opposition, Mars will not be as big and bright as it was in 2025. Check out the chart at C. Seligman’s Mars oppositions page that lists all oppositions of Mars from 1995 to 2037.
There’s a 15-year cycle of Mars, whereby the red planet is brighter and fainter at opposition. In July 2018, we were at the peak of the 2-year cycle – and the peak of the 15-year cycle – and Mars was very, very bright! In 2020, we were also at the peak of the 2-year cycle; however, Earth and Mars were farther apart at Mars’ opposition than they were in 2018. Still, 2020’s opposition of Mars was excellent. And, in December 2022, Mars had a good opposition but appeared smaller and dimmer than in 2020, since we were farther away from it. And the February 2027 opposition will find Mars smaller and dimmer than Mars was in 2025. Diagram by Roy L. Bishop. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Used with permission. Visit the RASC eStore to purchase the Observer’s Handbook, a necessary tool for all skywatchers.
EarthSky Community Photos
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Paolo Bardelli of Italy made this composite image and wrote: “On January 16, 2025, Mars was at opposition, the previous one occurred on December 8, 2022, when it became the brightest object in the night sky. During these periods, tracing the apparent motion of the red planet from evening to evening is very interesting, as a real ‘noose’ is created, with a double reversal of its movement. This put ancient sky observers in crisis at the time when the geocentric theory was dominant. Putting things in their place, it turned out to be a simple perspective effect, due to the mutual motion of Earth and Mars. This image is the sum of a sequence taken every useful evening, clouds permitting, from August 12, 2022, to March 22, 2023. The background is the sum of 22 shots of the area of the sky where Mars was located, the rich star field of the constellation Taurus. By coincidence, in February 2023 the path of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) crossed the noose.” Thank you, Paolo!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | B Martin in Riverside, California, captured this image of red Mars on December 15, 2024, just 1 month before Earth went between the red planet and the sun, bringing Mars closest for this 2-year period. B wrote: “Mars was around maybe 45 degrees up. I saw it in live view, I knew it was a banger … Bonus, you can see the shadow of the cloud of the ribbon white long cloud stream on the lower left. The shadow is in the direction hugging the right of the cloud. The shadow is dark brown in color as it casts on the Martian sand.” Thank you for sharing, B!
Seeing red
Mars appears as a reddish light in the sky and, therefore, is often called the red planet. Other obvious red dots in the sky are reddish-orange Aldebaran and the famous red supergiant Betelgeuse. So, it is fun to contrast Mars’ color and intensity of red with that of Aldebaran or Betelgeuse.
And then there is red Antares. Antares is Greek for rival of Ares (Ares being the Greek name for Mars). Antares is sometimes said to be the anti-Mars due to its competing red color. For a few months every couple of years Mars is much brighter than Antares. Also, every couple of years Mars passes near Antares, as if taunting the star. Mars moves rapidly through the heavens and Antares is fixed to the starry firmament.
What makes them red?
Surface temperature is what determines the colors of the stars. The hottest stars are blue and the coolest stars are red. In fact, from hottest to coolest, the colors of stars range from blue, white, yellow, orange and red. And while the colors of stars might be hard to detect, some stars – like Aldebaran, Antares and Betelgeuse – are noticeably colorful.
On the other hand, Mars appears red for a different reason. It’s red because of iron oxide in the dust that covers this desert world. Iron oxide gives rust and blood their red color. Rovers on Mars sampled the Martian dust and determined it contains three colors: reds, browns and oranges. So those three colors are what you may see when you gaze upon Mars.
Do you see red when you look at Mars, Aldebaran, Antares and Betelgeuse? Are they the same color? Do you see any other colors of stars?
Bottom line: Earth passed Mars in our orbit around the sun on January 15-16, 2025. Mars was at its biggest and brightest for 2025 then. Mars will remain in our evening sky through October, fading more each month.
Our Editor-in-Chief Deborah Byrd works to keep all the astronomy balls in the air between EarthSky's website, YouTube page and social media platforms. She's the primary editor of our popular daily newsletter and a frequent host of EarthSky livestreams. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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