whats the scoop on the MARS viewing ?

Question

An E-mail regarding the planet Mars and a spectacular viewing on Aug.27.".the size of the full moon" closest ever to the Earth etc. why the false report? I doesn't make sense to me!

Answer 1

Albert Einstein probably explained this best, when he said "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." These emails are being circulated by people too stupid to know that 1) Mars's closest pass in recorded history happened in August of 2003, and 2) the original article said that Mars THROUGH A TELESCOPE would look as big as the full Moon to the naked eye. No way is Mars EVER going to look as big as the Moon (at least not in any survivable scenario).

edit: nick s, check the date on that link - that happened LAST October.

Answer 2

Mars will have a fairly close encounter this October:

See http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07jul_marshoax.htm

"Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter this year on October 30th at 0319 Universal Time. Distance: 69 million kilometers. To the unaided eye, Mars will look like a bright red star, a pinprick of light, certainly not as wide as the full Moon."

The fact is that what is going round is not a hoax but a mistake. Soemone has done a search and the report on the 2003 closest approach is still hanging around on the internet. They have seen August 27 for the event and glossed over the year. Then they pass the info on in their own mistaken words and others take it up as fact.

Also in the telling, the stupid person forgot the bit about Mars looking as big as the moon when viewed with 70x magnification.

Anyway, fact is the 2003 closest for thousands of years was just a whisker closer than the coming October close approach. You would not be able to tell the difference with the naked eye. So, have a look.

If you were expecting to see it as big as the Moon, you will be sadly, sadly disppointed.

Answer 3

nick s is almost as misinformed. Look at the link and the date. The October 30th opposition was in 2005. Even then the same email was circulating then that is circulating now. Mars is almost behind the sun now and won't come to opposition again until December of 2007. Hope you aren't disappointed. There is plenty of other things to look at in the night sky with modest optical aid, especially if you can get away from city lights.

Answer 4

In August, 2006, the closest Mars will come to Earth is 232,392,825.9 miles (August 1st). THREE YEARS AGO Mars came within 34,646,418 miles of Earth on August 28, 2003, the closest it's been in the last 50,000 years. Regardless of what you've been told, it was NOT as large as the full moon.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/mars_preview_021108.html
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/mars_orbit.html

Answer 5

it extremely is the Cydonia area. Low-decision photos interior the Seventies got here approximately to be taken whilst the sunshine got here approximately to be at basically the main dazzling perspective to boost some organic bumps on a hill in a trend that feels like a face to our eyes. of course, our brains are under pressure to seek for a number of those types (see pareidolia below), so we see a face as quickly as we see something with even a passing resemblance to a minimum of one. Richard Hoagland took the "face" on Mars and ran with it; he's been the main purveyor of this actual little bit of woo. he's taken it various steps farther. His factor is to explode photos way previous their decision, and make fanciful claims approximately what he sees interior the distorted photos. "extraterrestrial beings on the Moon" proponents do the comparable factor with "spaceships" they see in blown-up photos of the floor of the far facet of the Moon. we've been decrease back to Mars and introduced plenty larger-res photos. It seems to be much less stunning in larger decision.