Does anyone know if this is the year that Mars will appear to us as the moon does starting in August ?

Question

This is the email I recieved but I'm thinking that this happened last year.
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.
Can anyone give me more insight on this please?

Answer 1

This is a hoax. It's not going to happen.

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.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
75-power magnification


Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the
beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.
and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are
closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty
convenient to see something that no human being has
seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Answer 3

Simple answer - the size of mars is such that for it to be as large to the eye as the moon is, it would have to break out of it's current orbit and get within 500,000 miles of us - and that is simpley not the case.

Scale: If the Earth were eight inches across the moon would be 2" and Mars would be 4". The moon would be 6 meters away at this scale and Mars would be 1.2 KILOMETERS away!

That's roughly 3/4 of a mile! Use a long straight road (please be careful of traffic if you ever do this!!) and put a 8" diameter ball at your feet. Pace off around 6 yards and put a 2" ball down.. Then get on a bike and go 3/4 of a mile down the road and put down a baseball painted bright red.

There you have a VERY rough scale of the relationship between the Earth, our moon and Mars. Ther eis no combination of orbits that will ever give you a view of Mars as large as the moon unless the planets move so much we all either freeze to death or die from the traumatic destruction of our ecosystem.

Answer 4

This is a hoax. It is a recycled email from 2003, when it was (mostly) true. It appeared again last year, when Mars was again close to us. This year it's complete nonsense, since on August 27 Mars will be on the far side of the Sun, as far from us as it can possibly get. It won't even be visible in a telescope.

Answer 5

yes this could be the main reason for the destruction of earth. other than like asteriods strike on to the earth. but if mars collids no chance for the existence of life here. some more reasons for the end of this world could be the supernova explosion of our sun in which continous nuclear reactions take places.

The Sun is using losing 4 billion kilograms of mass a second; as four hydrogen nuclei are converted to a single helium one, this loss in mass provides the energy for the Sun to shine. (Mass and energy are equivalent, as shown by Einstein's famous formula E=mc2). Large though it sounds, this mass loss is actually insignificant compared to the Sun's total mass. The Sun's total mass is 2 x 1030 (or 2 nonillion) kilograms. Another way of looking at the Sun's mass loss is to consider how long it would take for it to "evaporate" at its current rate of mass loss; it would take 14 trillion years. (Remember that the Universe is only about 12 billion years old.) So although the Sun's gravitational pull is reducing, the effect isn't noticable.

Answer 6

That bogus E-mail has made the rounds every summer since Mars made its historic close approach in 2003. No, Mars will not be close to Earth this August. And even in 2003 it was not close enough to look as big as the Moon. It never gets that close.

Answer 7

This is the year that it will make it closest to the earth, however if mars got close enough to appear as a moon it would be all over for us. mars approaching that close to the earth would at least destroy most of the infrastructure on the planet.

Answer 8

this can be an uncomplicated one. If the international receives too warm, we've shown that we may be able to live to inform the tale it because the "Cradles of Civilization" were in warm, dry factors. If the international receives chilly, then we've already shown that we may be able to face up to ice a at the same time as, and that is with none "intense" technologies. If the international receives overpopulated, it is going to, out of necessity, stability itself out. i don't think of we verify to be stricken about surviving the subsequent 100 years. the authentic question is the thanks to we save the subsequent 100 years from transforming into the subsequent darkish Age.

Answer 9

no, it will not appear this year like that. Unfortunately, this is the second time this hoax has gone around. This happened in August of 2003.

Answer 10

sorry, it was 27 august 2003.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/nightsky02-2003.html
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2003/22/

mars will never appear as large as the moon appears.

Answer 11

Yea cool. Ready for the world to get even more nutz? Cause here it comes .....