Today Mars, the sun and the Earth are aligned

In a rare astronomical event, Mars will move toward the sun on April 8, creating a straight line between Mars, the sun and the Earth.

Expected alignment phenomenon will happen today - April 8 - (Photo: Starry Night)

The opposite phenomenon appears every 778 days / times, 2 years 1 month and 18 days.

Just imagine that Earth and Mars are two cars racing on runways. Because the Earth is closer to the sun, it travels faster, completing the race within 365 days.

Meanwhile, Mars is farther away, so it takes up to 687 days to complete its trajectory. At the time of Mars running around 1 round, the Earth was about 2 rounds away.

And up to 778 days, the two planets lie on opposite sides of the sun, forming a straight line.

After a straight line of about 6 days, on April 14, Mars will reach closer to Earth than any other day of the year, according to Space.com.