The Hubble telescope won't crash into Mars, but it may look that way

The Hubble Space Telescope will pass in front of Mars on Friday night — and because of our depth perception — it will look like the decades-old telescope is slamming into the Red Planet.

The Hubble's expected path puts it right in front of Mars at 7:58:42 p.m. People think that they can see in 3-D, but this isn’t true. Our retinas are fundamentally two-dimensional. We see light in different positions but not truly at different depths.

So, thanks to our lack of true depth perception, we'll see the illusion of a Mars-Hubble collision, even though Mars is about 140 million miles from Earth.

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If you are looking through the observatory telescope, you may or may not see the Hubble Space Telescope zoom through the field of view. I cannot predict it with that much accuracy. A low power eyepiece will offer the best chance. But for anyone looking without optical aid, you should see the Hubble Space Telescope glide right over Mars. No explosions will ensue but perhaps a feeling that the Red Planet has just dodged a bullet.

The Hubble, according to NASA, was launched in 1990 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Since then it's been orbiting Earth, snapping photos and collecting data that has been used in more than 14,000 scientific papers. It's roughly the size of a school bus and moves orbits at a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour. So far, it's traveled more than 3 billion miles.

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Mr. Badger is Project Coordinator at the Eastern Florida State College Planetarium in Cocoa. Send questions, suggestions, or comments to badgerb@easternflorida.edu