Will pluto be seen as big as the moon on July 27, 2007?

Question

I have been texted by one of my friends that on July 27. 2007, Pluto will be seen as big as the moon. Is this true or he is only joking around? thanks!!!

Answer 1

There is a hoax e-mail going around purporting that this is so. The senders of this e-mail are the jokers, not your friend, He just fell for it, that's all.

Someone helpfully posted the text of an e-mail he had received on here, recently:

"Planet Pluto will be brightest in the night sky starting July. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on July 27 when Pluto comes within 34.65M miles of the earth. Be sure to watch the sky on July 27, 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has two moons. The next time Pluto may come this close is in 2287. Share this with you friends and loved ones as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again."

This is very muddled e-mail hoaxer. For the past four summers the same message has circulated claiming MARS will be as big as the Moon on AUGUST 27th. See the text quoted on Snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp

Remarkably similar isn't it?

This hoax was based on rehashing something that did happen on 27 August 2003. Mars was on that day at its closest to earth for 60,000 years. But nothing like as large as or as bright as the Moon!

The subsequent Mars Hoaxes simply altered the year-date by a year, every year.

Now we have a case of wrong planet, wrong month, wrong year and it is misinformation anyway!

THE FACTS:

(1) The Moon is bigger than Pluto

(2) The Moon is much much nearer than Pluto (one 400th of an AU compared to an average of 40 AUs i.e. Pluto is 16,000 times as far away as the Moon.

(3) Pluto is never ever visible to the naked eye. You need a telescope. (With at least a 12 inch aperture).

(4) Pluto has an average magnitude of 15, a full moon has an average magnitude of about -12.7. A difference in 5 magnitudes between two objects means one is 100 times as bright as the other.

A difference in 27.7 magnitudes between The Moon and Pluto means the Moon is about 10^11 = 100 billion times as bright as Pluto.

Not even plausible is it?

And if it is supposed to be so bright in 4 days' time, don't you think we would have noticed something by now? And when with 6 hours to go, it still hasn't been seen, is anyone really going to believe Pluto is going to speed towards us at the speed of light, just to fulfill some crackpot prophecy?

Why do people send this nonsense out? Why do some people believe it when they get it? It never ceases to amaze me how gullible some people can be!

Answer 2

It must be a joke or he doesnt know what hes tlking about. Pluto will never be seen as large as the moon. It isn't possible. Jupiter is over 300 million miles away and is over 10,000 times the size of pluto and can only be viewed as a "bright star" on good nights. Pluto is much, much further and is smaller than our moon. Even with a space cloud disturbance possibly magnifying the light being reflected back to earth from pluto, it would still be no more than a spec in the sky

Answer 3

Comments: The text of this rumor was roughly accurate when it first began circulating in the summer of 2003, outdated when it went around again in 2005, and just plain false when it appeared for the third time in 2006. It is now 2007, and making the email rounds again. How many times can a "once in a lifetime" event occur? The oscillating orbits of Mars and Earth did, in fact, bring the two planets closer together on August 27, 2003 than at any other time during the past 50,000 years. Though Mars never actually appeared "as large as the full moon" -- not even close -- for a few days in 2003 it was indeed the brightest object in the night sky. In October 2005 another well-publicized "close encounter" occurred, though in that case the planets were about 13 million kilometers further apart than during the 2003 event. Nothing so spectacular is predicted for 2007.

Answer 4

No way, Jose! Not only is Pluto MUCH, MUCH farther away from the Earth (Pluto is 3.67 BILLION miles from the Sun, while the Moon is less that a quarter Million miles from Earth), but the dwarf planet Pluto is physically smaller than the Moon (Pluto's radius is about 1151 km, the Moon's is 1738 km).

So, in order for Pluto to appear as large as the Moon to the naked eye, it would have to leave its orbit, and come screaming through the solar system more than 3 billion miles in just four days to a position inside the orbit of the Moon.

Ain't gonna happen. Trust me.

Answer 5

This is not true. Fact is that you will never see Pluto when you look at the sky. Even if you would buy a 300 $ telescope you would still not see Pluto with that telescope. Pluto is too far away and is too small.

Answer 6

Pluto will not even be as big as Uranus.
.

Answer 7

it's not true...
how can you see pluto ....so small...