Is it true on Augst 28 ,2006 is the closest range of mars to earth ?

Question

that This cycle happen only once in every 2228 years ? and u can see that it look like 2 moon at that moment? answer please....

Answer 1

It is a hoax. Central to the hoax is the Baron Von Munchausen story that Mars will look as big as our Moon. Poppycock!

The hoax is based on a gross distortion of what happened in 2003 (see the CNN News story below).

People are so gullible, they believe what a complete stranger says and don't check the facts for themselves,

Which would you rather believe: an anonymous, unsolicited e-mail or the official NASA website?

I went to NASA's Kids Website which told me:

"View in 2006
Mars begins the year as a moderately bright orange star in the constellation Aries. It will grow fainter through the end of summer, when it will disappear in the Sun's glare. Mars will re-emerge in the morning sky in late December. In March, it will pass quite close to Aldebaran, the star that marks the “eye” of Taurus, the bull. Mars and Aldebaran will look like twins, with near-identical color and brightness."

You don't need to be a genius to work out that if it is getting fainter it is getting further away, and if it is disappearing into the sun's glare that can only be because it is on the far side of the sun from us i.e. Mars' position in its orbit is 180 degrees away from our position in our orbit and we are pretty well the maximum possible distance apart in August 2006.

If you know (and you can easily look this up) that the Martian Year is 1.88 Earth Years then again you don't have to be a genius to work out that the one time it WON'T be near to us is an exact number of twelvemonths since the last time it was close to us in August 2003, We will be in roughly the same place as we were 3 years ago, but Mars will only have done approx 1,6 orbits (1.5957 in fact) around the sun in that time, which explains why it is now on the far side of the sun and at about the farthest distance away it gets,

The absurd idea that Mars could possibly look the same size as the Moon can easily be refuted. At its closest approach it is 35 million miles away, whereas the Moon averages 238,000 miles away i.e. the distances are in ratio >140:1.

The diameters are in ratio 2:1 however (Mars has a diameter of 6780 kms and the Moon of 3474 kms) and so the areas of the discs they present to the naked eye are in ratio 4:1 (pi R^2: pi r^2, where R = 2r)

So, think about it: how can the number of arc seconds that Mars' disc presents to the naked eye possibly be the same as the number of arc seconds that the Moon's disc presents? If the disc is 4 times the size of the Moon's disc, Mars would have to be only four times as far away as the Moon, i.e. only a million miles away, for that to happen.

and

(a) that never happens

(b) If it did happen, you'd soon know about it as giant tidal waves caused by Mars' gravity would sweep the Earth, making the Tsunamai look like a Sunday School picnic.

So not only can you look it up on reputable websites to discover this is nonsense, you can also work it out for yourself that it must be nonsense.

Much closer to the truth is that next March Mars will look about the same size and brightness as Aldebaran, in Taurus, the13th brightest star in the sky, And they are both red. They will be a matched pair, but Mars and the Moon will never be one.

HERE IS THE STORY CNN CARRIED IN 2003

Earthlings revel in Mars close-up
Planetary approach is nearest in 60,000 years
By Richard Stenger
and Jeordan Legon
CNN
Thursday, August 28, 2003

The last time the red planet was this close to Earth 60,000 years ago, man lived in caves.

No wonder when Mars and Earth synchronized their orbits a few minutes before 6 a.m. EDT Wednesday -- bringing them closer to each other than at any time in recorded history -- thousands of people around the globe went outside to take a peek.

"Knowing that this is once in a lifetime that I can see another planet with the naked eye, yeah, it's great," said Rebecca Horton, a stargazer from Sydney, Australia.

Astronomers say Mars, five times closer now than six months ago, is about 34.6 million miles away, making it the brightest nighttime object except the moon.

"It is possible to get some fairly close encounters every few years," said amateur astronomer Paul Shallow. "It does come around, but not this close."

But with the far-away planet getting so close, some hopeful watchers felt gypped by Mother Nature.

In Oakland, California, where hundreds of space fans paid $11 to attend the Chabot Space & Science Center's "Mars Mania Costume Party," clouds rolled in along with night sky Tuesday. Mars was fogged out, and there were no refunds.

But the good news is that Mars will remain a stunning nighttime attraction for weeks. Most sky watchers can see the planet, presently in the constellation Aquarius, in the southeastern sky soon after sunset, high overhead during the midnight hours and in the southwestern sky before sunrise.

Backyard telescopes may coax features out of the reddish, orange blur, including dark, mottled streaks, which inspired scientists of past centuries to envision intricate canals and advanced Martian civilizations.

The rare configuration of 2003 has stoked renewed, albeit not as fanciful, interest in Mars, which on average cruises 50 million miles farther from the sun than Earth does.

About every 26 months, the two planets pass relatively close to one another, during periods now known as opposition.

What makes this one noteworthy is that Mars, which follows an extremely elliptical or egg-shaped path, is currently at it closest point to the sun during its orbit.

Those two conditions, along with a few obscure celestial variables, have produced an astronomical chance of a lifetime, or several lifetimes actually.

Mars won't pass closer to Earth until 2287, according to astronomers.

Besides awing the curious, the alignment has motivated numerous governments to dispatch missions to the red planet.

Taking advantage of the shorter trip distance, two U.S. and two European probes set off earlier this year, all to arrive at the end of the year.

"Mars fever has caught, not only for amateur astronomers, who are getting their best look at the planet ever and that we'll ever have in our life, but also for professionals, as you know, with the [NASA] Mars Rovers and other spacecraft that are en route," said David Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine."

Answer 2

there is an digital mail circulating in our online international announcing that the crimson planet Mars would be tremendously close on 27 August (2006). in accordance to a minimum of one version"it rather is going to look like the Earth has 2 moons". as quickly as back, that's an outstanding lesson in not believing each and every thing on the information superhighway. the digital mail is a hoax describing in extremely exaggerated style the activities of 2003. On 27 August 2003 Mars replaced into in basic terms fifty 5.8 million kilometres away that's in simple terms approximately the closest achieveable distance it rather is from Earth. To the unaided eye it appeared like a shining crimson beacon whilst with the aid of a telescope a small crimson disc ought to bee seen with some darkish useful properties seen. In late August this 12 months(2006) Mars is faint and in simple terms seen after sunset low interior the western sky.

Answer 3

No.
The URL link is the graph of the distance between Earth and Mars. It is measured in AU. An AU is a unit of distance equal to the average spacing between the Earth and the Sun. Usually abbreviated AU , it is equal to about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles), and is a distance that light takes about 8 minutes to cover. It is a handy size for use for expressing distances in the solar system. For example, the diameter of the orbit of the most distant planet, Pluto, is about 80 AU

You can see that although Mars came closest in 2003, it will be close again every 14 years. At the close approach it is about .38 AU from Earth (35.3 million miles) At the farthest approach it is about .69 AU from Earth (64.1 million miles)

;-D The next close approach will be in 2018.

Answer 4

When you look the full moon, its diameter makes an angle of about 0.5 degree. Mars, even when it is closest to the Earth is 100X smaller, something like 0.005 degree. So it is nowhere near the size of the moon visually. There is a hoax email going around.

Answer 5

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 6

No, Mars got closer to Earth than it has ever been in 2003 (learned about it in Astronomy two years too late =P), and it will be thousands of years before it gets that close again, though it *will* get close during our lifetime (just not that much).

Answer 7

Nope- a email from 2003 actually that is being re-circulated, it has already happened back in aug 2003. Look on the internet to confirm, it on different rumour & hoax sites! Would have been cool though this month.....but already happened!

Answer 8

No. Its a total scam. Mars was close to the earth 2 years ago but not so much that you could tell with a naked eye.

Answer 9

Hey. I`ve got an e-mail regarding that. May be it`s true. Let`s see. I know one thing for sure when I look at the moon on Aug 28 that someone is also watching the sky too.

Answer 10

it has been confirmed that mars will NOT come close this month...(it came in the newspaper)
even i got the mail abt this but this happened 3 years ago..someone actually send it again this year and its all wrong..now the next time mars will come that close will be thousands of yrs later...

Answer 11

I am pretty sure it is true because I have heard about it a few times in the last few days. Supposedly it is to appear to be the same size as the moon.