--- title: Mars Closest to Earth: Watch Free Livestream Online description: A rare orbital alignment on Monday will bring Mars and Earth closer together than the planets have been since 2005 canonical: https://time.com/4350067/mars-earth-orbit-close-livestream-video-online/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-30T16:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:53:03.598Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch Live: Mars Passes Closer to Earth Than It Has in a Decade og:description: Mars and Earth are about to get very cozy og:url: https://time.com/4350067/mars-earth-orbit-close-livestream-video-online/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159a682a85b1403c/698893fecd1bba55d9700c32/hubble-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: hubble-mars og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Live: Mars Passes Closer to Earth Than It Has in a Decade twitter:description: Mars and Earth are about to get very cozy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159a682a85b1403c/698893fecd1bba55d9700c32/hubble-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Live: Mars Passes Closer to Earth Than It Has in a Decade by [Slooh](/author/slooh/) ## Slooh May 30, 2016 4:00 PM CUT  Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet on May 12, 2016. Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet on May 12, 2016.NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. Bell (ASU)/M. Wolff (Space Science Institute) by [Slooh](/author/slooh/) ## Slooh May 30, 2016 4:00 PM CUT A rare orbital alignment on Monday will [bring Mars and Earth closer together](http://time.com/?p=4346398 "undefined") than the planets have been since 2005\. This will make Mars brighter in the sky than it usually is, rivaling even the much larger Jupiter, which is usually the brightest object in the nighttime sky after the moon. The distance between the two planets ranges from about 33 million miles to about 249 million miles, depending on where each is in its orbit around the sun. But on Monday they will pass each other at just about 46.8 million miles (75.3 million km) apart, and even casual skywatchers will notice the difference without the aid of a telescope. You can watch a livestream of the celestial event as captured by the Slooh Solar System telescope above, and you can [read more about it here](http://time.com/4346398/earth-mars-close-orbit-apehelion-perihelion/ "undefined"). _Slooh is a TIME partner. You can go to Slooh.com to join and watch this live broadcast, snap and share your own photos during the event, chat with audience members and interact with the hosts, and personally control Slooh’s telescopes._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4350067/mars-earth-orbit-close-livestream-video-online/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4350067/mars-earth-orbit-close-livestream-video-online/"},"headline":"Watch Live: Mars Passes Closer to Earth Than It Has in a Decade","datePublished":"2016-05-30T16:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:53:03.598Z","description":"Mars and Earth are about to get very cozy","url":"https://time.com/4350067/mars-earth-orbit-close-livestream-video-online/","keywords":["Space","Mars","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159a682a85b1403c/698893fecd1bba55d9700c32/hubble-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Slooh","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/slooh/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159a682a85b1403c/698893fecd1bba55d9700c32/hubble-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hubble-mars","caption":"Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet on May 12, 2016.","creditText":"NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. 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