Today we are going to answer two questions. First, what in heck is "perihelic opposition?" Second, why are Lycos users searching for Mars four times as often as usual?

"Perihelic opposition" is an astronomy term, referring to the time in another planet's orbit when that planet is closest to both the Sun and the Earth. It turns out Mars is getting very close to one of these points, and a point of a historic nature. On August 27, the orbits of Earth and Mars will bring the two planets the closest they have been in nearly 60,000 years.

Already, Mars is the brightest "star" in the night sky, but as we get later in August it will become even brighter. If you have a good home telescope, you should be able to spot the features of the Martian landscape. In a couple of weeks Mars will be so bright that, if you know where to look, you will be able to see it during the daytime, even with the naked eye.

Mars' elliptical orbit has been growing closer to Earth's near-circular orbit over the past few millennia. So if you miss it this time, you won't have to wait 60,000 years for the next perihelic opposition. You'll just need to wait for 2287, at which point Mars will be even closer.

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If you haven't checked out the Lycos 50 Blog recently, let me point out a couple of great recent emails from our readers. One explores the recent fall of searches for Dragonball, while the other explores the Clay Aiken phenomenon. Send email to the Lycos 50, and perhaps your comments will show up on the blog.

Speaking of blogs, we're super proud of the folks behind Lycos Blog Builder. Blog Builder was recently awarded the editor's choice award as the Web's best blogging tool by PC Magazine. If you haven't jumped into the world of blogs yet, now's the time to share your thoughts with the world, or even just with friends, with either Angelfire Blog Builder or Tripod Blog Builder.