Mars hoax

[Gravity_Ray]

I am getting so tired of that email that circulates every year that "This year on August 27th Mars will be as bright as the Moon". This one even had a fake picture of a double Moon (Heck they didnt even put Mars next to the Moon, they just used a smaller Moon picture).

Mars will never be as bright as the Moon.

Lets move along.

 

[neilsox]

The slight brightening of Mars is not once per year, and is partly the result of local weather and light polution than the position in the orbit. I agree, nothing special will happen on August 27. The apparent brightness of Mars will always be hundreds times dimmer than a full moon. Neil

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sorry neilsox, that is just wrong. Mars brightens when it is closest to earth, about every 26 months or so, at opposition, when it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise, and is highest around true midnight.

Currently it is magnitude +1.4, visible above Venus for a short while after sunset, and is very small, only about 4.8 arc seconds, barely larger than Uranus, at 4.0 arc seconds.

 

[clint_dreamer]

My dad got the email last week and immediately called asking if I knew anything about it, which is funny because he tends to believe things he reads online more than his own son. I thought it was pretty entertaining.

 

[MeteorWayne]

This is now the seventh year, and each year, like a good game of telephone, it gets more distorted.

 

[XBBRAT]

mars

i was sent an e-mail about mars,
the e-mail said that at the end of august we will be able to see mars clearly and we will not see this again in our lifetime.
Any truth to this and if so where can i get more info on this event?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: mars

Sorry, no it is not true. The best appearence of Mars was in 2003, and this trash e-mail now circulates every year becoming more and more bizarre over time. This year, by the end of August, Mars will barely be visible as it sets soon after the sun. You can see it now in the west after sunset to the left of the much brighter Venus and the slightly brighter Saturn. It's actually a very nice grouping.

Mars is currently only about 20% of the size that it was in 2003.

 

[bdewoody]

Mars hooey surfacing again this week

I just got several E-mails from non scientific types claiming they had read that Mars would appear as big as the moon later this week. Where does this nonsense come from? It seems like this pops up every couple of years.

I replied to them that they were going to be highly disappointed if they bought the lie.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Mars hooey surfacing again this week

Actually, it's come around every year since 2003 when Mars made it's closest approach in centuries. Like the old "telephone" party game, each year it gets wilder and more distorted from what the original story was back then.

 

[crazyeddie]

Re: Mars hooey surfacing again this week

It just makes you wish you knew who the doofus was that started the email, so you could send a hit man to his house to beat him with a wet noodle......or worse! :twisted:

 

[MeteorWayne]

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... _marshoax/

Today's Science@NASA

The Mutating Mars Hoax

Here are the facts. On August 27, 2010, Mars will be 314 million km from Earth, about as far away as it can get. Mars will shine in the western sky after sunset like a tiny red star of ordinary brightness. If you didn't know it was there, you probably wouldn't notice....

Here's what you should do on August 27th. Go outside at sunset and face west. The bright light you see shining through the twilight is lovely Venus. Grab a pair of binoculars and scan the sky around Venus. A few degrees to the right, you'll come across a little orange star-like object. That is Mars.

Now go back inside and delete that email.

 

[vlrwebster]

:twisted: so the headache i have from trying to set up my cheap tele. is for nothing?!!!!!!!!!!!!!! damn.

 

[CAllenDoudna]

Yeah, Mars is going to be as big as the Full Moon and we'll be able to see it with the naked eye. I got that one from a guy who was intelligent and well-educated.

This seems to have started when an astronomer in 2003 said that when Mars was viewed through a small telescope like the most popular ones sold at places like Wal-Mart Mars would appear in the telescope about as large as the Full Moon does to the naked eye. The tabloids conviently cut out the part about a small telescope and sold a lot of papers by putting the fantastic absurdity on the front page.

Oh, THERE IS ONE BIT OF TRUTH!!!!:

It IS true that: NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS!!!!!