tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">MATHERAN

MARVELL, ANDREW MATHESON, GEORGE MARX, HEINRICH KARL MATHEW, THEOBALD MARY (the mother of Jesus) MATHEWS, CHARLES MARY (Magdalene) MATHEWS, THOMAS MARY I. MATHY, KARL MARY II. MATILDA (queen of England) MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS MATILDA (countess of Tuscany) MARY (duchess of Burgundy) MATINS MARY (queen of France) MATLOCK MARY OF LORRAINE MATOS FRAGOSO, JUAN DE MARY OF MODENA MATRASS MARY OF ORANGE MATRIARCHATE MARYBOROUGH (Ireland) MATRIMONY MARYBOROUGH (Queensland, Australia) MATRIX MARYBOROUGH (Victoria, Australia) MATROSS MARYLAND MATSUKATA MARYPORT MATSYS, QUINTIN MARZABOTTO MATTEAWAN MASACCIO  

MARS, in astronomy, the fourth planet in the order of distance from the sun, and the next outside the earth. To the naked eye it appears as a bright star of a decidedly reddish or lurid tint, which contrasts strongly with the whiteness of Venus and Jupiter. At opposition it is brighter than a first magnitude star, sometimes outshining even Sirius. It is by virtue of its position the most favourably situated of all the planets for observation from the earth. The eccentricity of its orbit, 0.0933, is greater than that of any other major planet except Mercury. The result is that at an opposition near perihelion Mars is markedly nearer to the earth than at an opposition near aphelion, the one distance being about 35 million miles; the other 63 million. These numbers