Some people are saying that 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.27th when Mars comes within 34.650M miles of Earth. They claim that we will be able to see it in the sky on Aug. 27 at 12:30 am. It will look like The Earth has 2 Moons. Furthermore, that the next time Mars may come this much close is 2287? How true is this? Can we see Mars everynight if the sky is clear?
2006-08-24 00:41:46 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The email going around was referring to an event in 2003, not 2006. Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth several years ago, culminating on 27 August 2003, when the red planet came within 35 million miles (or 56 million kilometers) of Earth, its nearest approach to us in almost 60,000 years. At that time, Mars appeared approximately 6 times larger and 85 times brighter in the sky than it ordinarily does. (The message is often reproduced with an unfortunate line break in the middle of the second sentence of the second paragraph, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would "look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" and not realizing that the statement only applied to those viewing Mars through a scope with 75-power magnification.)
Although Mars' proximity to Earth in August 2003 (referred to as a perihelic opposition) was a rare occurrence, the red planet comes almost as near to us every 15 to 17 years. To the unaided observer, Mars' appearance in August 2003 wasn't significantly larger or brighter than it is during those much more common intervals of closeness.
Mars had another close encounter with Earth in in 2005, but that occurrence took place in October (not August), and the red planet appeared about 20% smaller than it did during similar circumstances in 2003.
As Texas astronomer Torvald Hessel observed in a 2006 interview about the perennial "Mars Spectacular" message:
Q: What's the truth?
A: Mars gets close to Earth every two years. So, last year, Mars was very close. Three years ago, it was spectacularly close ... And right now, I'm sad to say, Mars is actually behind the Sun; we can't see it at all.
Q: How wide spread is this falsehood?
A: People get excited about it, start to send e-mail ... and every August we see this e-mail coming back and I get a lot of e-mails about it, of course.
Mars' next close approach to Earth will occur in December 2007, but even then it will still be about 55 million miles away from us, not nearly as close as it was in 2003 or 2005. Not until 2018 will our view of Mars be similar to the one that was available in 2003, and it won't be until the year 2287 that Mars will come closer to Earth than it did back in 2003.
The web site of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) provides a chart displaying data about Mars Oppositions (past, present, and future), and the web site of the Hubble Heritage Project offers some nice composite telescope images from previous Mars near oppositions.
The Mars phenomenon of 2003 was featured in a couple of articles on the web site Space.com which are still well worth the reading:
Mars to Get Closer than Ever in Recorded History in 2003
Orbital Oddities: Why Mars will be So Close to Earth in August
Interested observers also joined Mars Watch 2003 through the MarsToday.com web site.
2006-08-24 00:57:38 · answer #1 · answered by They call me ... Trixie. 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes you can see mars every night .. yes it is about to be closer than it hardly ever is .. no it will look nothing at all like the full moon (that is a gross exageration). It will gradually grow brighter as it draws closer and then will gradually dim as it recedes. It will look much the same on the nights before the 27th as well as the nights afterwards as this isn't an instant thing.
2006-08-24 00:49:40 · answer #2 · answered by sam21462 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While it is somewhere every night, it is not necessarily visibly every night. Sometimes it is below the horizon or behind the sun. On the 27th, it will not be that close to earth and in fact won't even be readily visible. This is just an urban legend.
2006-08-24 01:22:45 · answer #3 · answered by kemchan2 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sometimes Mars is in the daytime sky instead of the night sky, and thus can't be seen.
2006-08-24 01:00:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is false.
Although Mars will come closer, it will not be that close, because otherwise we wouldnt be sending astronaughts there on a 6 year journey!
It does come closer, as the planets orbit, but certainly not that close
2006-08-24 00:48:29 · answer #5 · answered by rjn2001_uk 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd steer clear of Mars completely. Some people have got sick after contracting salmonella from the choclate.
2006-08-24 01:18:49 · answer #6 · answered by sparky 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, this is an old 'hoax' that has been doing the rounds. Can't happen, Won't happen. For details, check out the Snopes.com web site or BadAstronomy site
2006-08-24 00:45:25 · answer #7 · answered by Avondrow 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
chap, the moon is 125000 miles away (roughly) at 34 thousand we have have sattelites which are in higher orbits.
and were it to happen, the gravitational stresses would kill the earth outright as it will fall out of its orbit and smash into the moon... see WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE... (good film)
2006-08-24 00:59:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The real truith is out there iam not sure to be honest
2006-08-24 00:46:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Your thinking of jupitar.
2006-08-24 07:19:01 · answer #10 · answered by lonely as a cloud 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋