Home / November

A little reason to celebrate

Red Planet Day

Nature · History · November 28

Red Planet Day looks at Mars, the rusty neighbor in our night sky, and how to spot it, read about it and follow the robots exploring it.

Red Planet Day falls on Saturday, November 28, 2026. That is 32 days away.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, a cold, dusty world about half the width of Earth. Its color comes from iron oxide in the soil and dust, which is the same chemistry that turns an old nail orange. From here it looks like a small, steady point of light with a faint salmon tint.

Up close it is a place of big landscapes. There are dry riverbeds, polar caps of ice, enormous volcanoes and a canyon system that would stretch across much of the continental United States. The air is thin and mostly carbon dioxide, and dust storms can wrap the whole planet for weeks. A day there runs only a little longer than ours.

People have watched Mars for as long as they have watched the sky, and its wandering path among the stars puzzled early astronomers. Today, robotic rovers roll across its surface and orbiters map it from above, sending back photographs that anyone can look through online.

Spotting it yourself takes no equipment. Mars does not twinkle as much as stars do, and its warm color stands out once you know to look for it. A free stargazing app or a printed sky chart will tell you whether it is up in the evening or before dawn, and which direction to face. Binoculars will not show surface detail, but a small backyard telescope can reveal a tiny disk and, on a good night, a pale hint of a polar cap.

Ways to celebrate

• Look for Mars in the night sky using a free stargazing app.
• Browse rover photographs of the Martian surface online.
• Borrow a library book about Mars or planetary exploration.
• Visit a local astronomy club's public viewing night.
• Sketch a Martian landscape based on real rover images.

Dates

All national days on November 28

Also on November 28

• National French Toast Day
• Small Business Saturday

Categories: Nature daysHistory days