Mars will be visible from anywhere in the night sky on Thursday as it passes close to the Moon.
The Red Planet will look like a rust-coloured star, just above the Moon, as they line up in conjunction.
The celestial event is taking place only hours before Nasa’s Perseverance rover will attempt a perilous landing on Mars, becoming the latest mission to explore the Red Planet.
Mars will be visible from 6.31pm in the UAE, in the western horizon, according to Al Sadeem Astronomy Observatory.
At that point it will be 199 million kilometers from Earth, which is about 11 light minutes away, meaning anyone looking up at it will be seeing it as it was 11 minutes previously.
Experts said the Moon will be about 42 per cent lit, so Mars should shine bright enough to see without a telescope.
A few hours later, Perseverance will attempt to touch down on Mars’s Jezero Crater, which features steep cliffs, sand dunes and boulder fields.
Nasa will live-stream the event, with coverage starting from 11.15pm UAE time, although touchdown will take place at 12.55am early on Friday.
If successful, Perseverance will search the ancient area of Mars for evidence of past life, helping to pave the way for future human exploration and even colonisation.
It follows two other successful missions by the UAE and China to explore Mars’s atmosphere.
The Emirates made history on February 9 after its Hope probe successfully entered the Red Planet's orbit.
Hours later, China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft followed suit.
The orbit-rover, Tianwen-1, will attempt to touch down in May for a 90-day exploration, studying the planet’s soil and rock composition and search for signs of buried water ice.
The Hope probe, a weather satellite, will study Mars's atmosphere and the seasons of its 687-day year.
In a message on Twitter, when Hope successfully entered Mars’s orbit, Nasa congratulated the Emirati team on its success by quoting the 10th century Iraqi poet, Al Mutanabbi.
"Dear Hope Mars Mission, congratulations on arriving at Mars! In the words of the poet Al Mutanabbi: "If you ventured in pursuit of glory, don’t be satisfied with less than the stars."
UAE's Hope probe to explore
mysteries of Mars:
Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
PREMIER LEAGUE RESULTS
Bournemouth 1 Manchester City 2
Watford 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 0
Newcastle United 3 West Ham United 0
Huddersfield Town 0 Southampton 0
Crystal Palace 0 Swansea City 2
Manchester United 2 Leicester City 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 Stoke City 1
Chelsea 2 Everton 0
Tottenham Hotspur 1 Burnley 1
Liverpool 4 Arsenal 0
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
The%20specs
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BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP
Group A
Paraguay
Japan
Switzerland
USA
Group B
Uruguay
Mexico
Italy
Tahiti
Group C
Belarus
UAE
Senegal
Russia
Group D
Brazil
Oman
Portugal
Nigeria