Ødegaard believes 2018 will be a ‘star year’

Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard and wife Anne Mette Sannes.Photo: NTB scanpix

In 2018, Mars will come extremely close to the Earth, there will be two total eclipses of the moon, a solar eclipse, and more milestones are expected in space.

 

For those who like to look at space, 2018 will be a good year, wrote astrophysicists Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, and Anne Mette Sannes, on the Astroevent.no website on Thursday. The couple made a list of events to look forward to in 2018.

On the 31st of January, the year in space will be launched with a total moon eclipse, which will be partially visible in Norway.

On July the 27th, there will be another total moon eclipse, which in turn will be partially visible in Norway.

On July the 31st, Mars is expected to be closer to Earth than it has been in 15 years. From Norway, Mars will be visible low in the southern hemisphere, just below the full moon.

On August the 11th, there will be a solar eclipse that will be visible all over the country in the morning.

In addition, there are a number of so-called ‘occultations’, that is, when a celestial body passes in front of another, several meteoric storms, and unusual interplanetary arrangements.

What really creates excitement for Ødegaard and Sannes are a number of expected milestones in space travel. The most sensational is the first planned tour of the moon under the direction of technology mogul, Elon Musk, and a mysterious astral belt that will be visited by the New Horizons spacecraft.

‘When it comes to planetary exploration, NASA will shoot its InSight Probe, and land this on Mars within one year, to study the interior of the planet, they wrote.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today