Is this really true?

Question

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of Earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 at 12:30 am. It will look like The Earth has 2 Moons. Don't Miss it..... The next time Mars may come this much close in 2287. NOTE: Share this with ur friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Answer 1

Mars is not going to look like the moon. Although it will be much brighter than normal. The visible magnitude of mars is usually about -1.52. In August the visible magnitude will be about -2.9. The lower the number the brighter the star or planet. Most stars have a magnitude of +2. So, it's not like your going to see something gigantic in the sky. Mars will appear strikingly brilliant, however. I will be about as bright as Jupiter ever gets. The next one that will be closer than this year's occurs in 2287. The closest of all comes in 2789, when mars will be about 34,580,000miles from Earth. On August 27 this year, Mars will be 34.65 million miles from Earth. This proximity hasn't occurred for 73,000 years.

Answer 2

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is
catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest
approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

Answer 3

Mars will never be as large as the full moon when viewed from Earth. However, periodically Mars and other planets make especially close approaches to Earth during which they appear brighter (although not much larger) than normal.

Answer 4

You've got the right distance for Mars (34.65-million miles), but you're almost three years late. That close approach of Mars occurred on August 27, 2003, and it did NOT look as big as the moon.

Answer 5

All that, except for 2 major exceptions, is true. The exceptions are: 1) Mars will not look as big as the Moon, it will just look like a bright star, and 2. that happened in 2003, it is not going to happen this year.

Answer 6

No, this is not really true. For Mars to look as large as the full moon, Mars would have to come within half a million miles from the Earth, not 34.65 million miles.

Answer 7

Yes actually it was true 2 years ago. However although Mars was very bright that night it did not look like the Earth had 2 moons. This email resurfaces every year about this time. Just ignore it.

Answer 8

Mars to be seen in the sky as big as our Moon is totally impossible. Unless something has gone terribly wrong in our galaxy !

Mars to be seen with the naked eye however is possible. It was the case in 2003. I even took it in picture. But it was barely bigger than a star.

Answer 9

I was thinking that was last year...but i just found the article below; it was in 2003. The exact same words as you have written.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_orbit_030121-1.html


The Mars Cycle and the 2003 Close Encounter
Introduction to the astronomy and the astrology of the 2003 opposition of Mars.
Category: Mars Opposition 2003
www.lunarplanner.com/HCpages/Mars2003.html#Top - 23k - Cached - More from this site - Save

Answer 10

Mars may achieve a maximum brightness in the sky, but it wouldn't be as bright as the moon. It would just look like a bright star.