Astronomers have found a shortcut that could shave hundreds of days off a trip to Mars, leveraging a path taken by asteroids. The distance between the Earth and the red planet changes constantly , depending on orbital position and velocity around the Sun. It’s the smallest when the Earth moves directly between the Sun and the neighbouring planet, a phenomenon that occurs roughly every 26 months and is known as the Mars opposition . It would take between seven and 10 months to travel this distance even with the fastest spacecraft available . However the newly discovered corridor, which opens during a close approach between the planets , could cut the total mission time to just 153 days. When space agencies plan planetary missions, they estimate optimal routes and fuel needs by looking at the trajectory data of planets. But the latest corridor was discovered by looking at orbital data from asteroids. Astronomers probed whether an asteroid’s path could be used to find hidden shortcuts in space.…