A question for the Americans. Have you viewed Mars and was it indeed in the part of the sky near the Moon?

Question

Unless I got the date wrong, I believe Mars was supposed to be at it's closest point to Earth on the 27TH does anyone have any pictures from the news or elsewhere?
Has anyone had a good view?

Answer 1

Howard L. Cohen

Emeritus Assoc. Professor
Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

August 10, 2006 (Updated Aug. 26, 2006)

Bad things just don't want to go away. A hoax about Mars has been circulating on the Internet for several year, especially in July and August. This deceptive material is back again including a very slick PowerPoint presentation that tries to make the hoax even more believable

Since 2003 bogus information has been circulating on the Internet including e-mail about a close approach of Mars on August 27.

Some, but not all, of this information was correct for the close approach of Mars in 2003. However, this material is now nearly all wrong as applied to future years.

In 2005, this deceptive information about the close approach on August 27 again appeared although the close approach of Mars to Earth that year occurred in November.

In the summer of 2006 this fraudulent material again resurfaced although Mars has no close approach to Earth in August or any other month of 2006!


I previously wrote about this hoax as it pertained to the 2005 close approach of Mars to Earth. Read about it on the Alachua Astronomy Club's page title, "Mars Hoax."

This hoax is now back again in 2006 with the same false and misleading information.

However, the hoax is even more deceptive and ridiculous because Mars does not even have any close approach to Earth during the entire year! Unfortunately the Mars hoax has been given more credibility in a polished, slick and crafty PowerPoint presentation simply titled, "Mars."

Answer 2

Mars is set till next April .

It's a hoax..
I heard about the Mars hoax . I'll tell you the real scoop on it . In 2003 it was in fact true ! Mars was the closest it's ever been on August 27 2003 .
The next year a New York Observatory reprinted the story again on the August 27th date for a joke . It was hown in the states on the local news and they said " The latest Mars craze is going on again this year , It was said to be started again by a new york observatory as a joke and well it's been listed as spam. And it currently is circulating the internet as a forward . We spoke to our local astronomers to get the story and they showed us where Mars is . Under the horizon till next year. t's completely not true this year , It did actually happen last in 2003 as we all know but this time it's a joke. an April fools joke . No madness intended . "
So it's been floating around for 2 years . Actually there is alot of it going around, crazy emails floating areound of it , observatory phones ringing off the hook .
It has turned into one big hoax . For further reading put in Mars Hoax into google & google news .
Next year the Mars Hoax will float again I bet !




To see more ..Mars hoax is all over the web in the news ..

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=mars+hoax&btnG=Search+News

Answer 3

Mars is on average, 45 million miles away from the earth. The moon is about 350,000. Mars would have to be HUGE in order to appear as large as the moon.

In fact, Mars is slightly smaller than our Earth. If it were as large as it needs to be in order to appear as large as the moon, it would create havoc with our own planet's gravity and tides.

At times, Mars appears as a reddish or pinkish dot in the sky. Without a telescope, that's about as good as it gets.

Answer 4

yes mars DOES get closer to the earth at certain times, but why would this be a question for the americans

Answer 5

It was (is) a hoax. Mars never gets that close to Earth.

Answer 6

sadly, I fell for the hoax. I was told about it by planetarium people. You would think they would know it was fake.