Two moons on August 27, 2007?

Question

Two moons on August 27, 2007
>
>*27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for.............*
>
>
>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 cultminate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes
>within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky
>on Aug. 27 12:30 am . It will look like the earth has
>2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in
>2287.
Is anyone else going to watch this beside me and what do you think about this? Has there ever been life on Mars??

Answer 1

Mars will look about the same size and brightness as ALDEBARAN, the bright red giant that is the eye of the bull and the brightest star in Taurus on 27/08/2007 and Mars will be very close to Aldebaran in the sky at the time, as it is in Taurus at the moment. (Find the Pleiades and you are getting warm ...)

So it will look like Taurus the bull has two red, bloodshot eyes! I hope that that compensates you for the disappointment you are bound to feel at being hoaxed ...

For hoaxed you have been!

You have received a hoax e-mail. They circulate every summer. Loads of people must get them because Yahoo! Answers gets loads of questions on this subject.

Once upon a time a long time ago (about 60,000 BC) there was a close approach of Mars to Earth of about 34.5 million miles..

Mars did not come that close to Earth again until 27th August 2003. That was worth remarking upon as a memorable occasion and received publicity. These occasions are called perihelic oppositions.

Mars (magnitude -2.9) was marginally brighter than Jupiter (magnitude -2.8) on that date in 2003. However Venus which is both larger than Mars and nearer than Mars is (as you might expect) always brighter than Mars and varies between magnitude -3.8 and - 4.6.

So the statement in the e-mail that Mars is about to become the brightest planet in the night sky is untrue.

The hoaxers do not know much about astronomy. They just sensationalise and distort the limited facts they have managed to pick up without properly understanding them or their implications.

As Venus has never been seen as large as the Moon and Venus is always brighter than Mars, it follows that Mars will not be seen to be as large as the Moon not on 27th August nor at any other time.

The naive belief that it "could be" that large this time just reveals the hoaxers' lack of understanding of how the Sun's gravity keeps the planets in stable orbits, which means the extent to which they vary in their positions is calculable and predictable.

Humanity has been studying and predicting the planets and their orbits for 4,000 years and writing their findings up in almanacs and suddenly someone comes along and declares "an unexpected dramatic change in a stable orbit is about to occur", wlthout explaining why that should be so. And expects to be believed!?

So the hoaxers do not understand that planetary orbits have been observed and carefully calculated and predicted for 4,000 years.

The hoaxers however seem to be suggesting that planets behave unpredictably and chaotically without any pattern or sense to that behaviour, and further, that they the hoaxers, like the Delphic Oracle of old, have unique divination powers and are passing on their knowledge, to which they alone are privy, to lucky old you.

Whereas all they are in fact passing on is misinformation based on their ignorance.

Mars, even at its nearest in 2003, was 140 times as far away as the Moon, and it is only twice its size (Equatorial radius of Mars = 3,402.5 km. Equatorial radius of the Moon = 1,738.14 km.).

So how could an object that is twice the size of the Moon but at least 140 times as far away (more like 220 times as far away in December 2007 when it will be 55 million miles away) ever look as big as the Moon? Does a tomato 140 yards away look as big as a cherry held at arm's length?

The only way Mars could ever appear as large as the Moon is if it were to get as close as half a million miles away,

If it did do that, it would be a disaster, causing huge tidal waves on Earth and tsunamai such as we have not seen the like of before. It would not be a thing to gawp at, and say "Oh wow! Awesome!" and tell all your friends to look out for it at 12.30 am !

But of course it won't do that (come within half a million miles of Earth) as Mars has a stable orbit.

The hoaxers have sent out the same e-mail every summer as regards 27 August 2004, 27 August 2005, 27 August 2006 and now 27 August 2007. Again revealing their ignorance of how the Solar System works. Mars has a year that equals 1.88 Earth years and as a result only comes close to us once every 26 months: on 27th August 2003, and then not again until 30th October 2005 and then not again until 18th December 2007.

The idea of it having a close approach on the same date every year is nonsense therefore, it is not like a wedding anniversary or a birthday or Mothers' Day, As the hoaxers seem to believe,

If anyone had have craned their necks and looked at the skies at 12.30 am on 27 August 2004 or 27th August 2006, all they would have got for their efforts was a stiff neck. As Mars was on the far side of the Sun on those two occasions and nowhere to be seen, as it was hidden behind the Sun's glare.

That is how much the hoaxers know about astronomy. That is how accurate and worthless their predictions are. Nobody should be taken in by their "knowledge" and nobody should copy and spread their e-mail to others so as "to pass on the exciting news" they have just received.

Snopes.com (see first link) have a useful article on the hoax.

LIFE ON MARS?

We don't yet know. But me may soon.

The Phoenix probe was launched on Saturday 4th August 2007 to take advantage of Mars being in opposition in December and is scheduled to land on Mars on May 25, 2008.

Phoenix is a robotic spacecraft which will be used for a space exploration mission to Mars. The scientists conducting the mission will use instruments aboard the Phoenix lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there.

Phoenix is planned to land in the planet's water-ice-rich northern polar region and, if this is successful, will use its robotic arm to dig into the arctic terrain.

(See second link)

Answer 2

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 3

What's going on is this. Back in 2003 (that's 2003 with a "3" on the end, folks), Mars had an especially favorable opposition, coming close enough to Earth to appear 25 arcseconds wide. By comparison, Mars is 7" wide right now (late July 2007) and will grow to 16" wide around its opposition in December 2007.

THE REAL STORY. Even when Mars is at opposition, which it won't be until December 2007, it looks like an orangish star, nowhere near as big and bright as the full Moon.
Back then, someone e-mailed someone else pointing out that at a magnification of 75× in a telescope, Mars would appear as big in the eyepiece (½° wide) as the Moon does unmagnified. True enough. But two things happened, as often do with chain letters. New versions got rewritten bit by bit to improve the story, so that the "75×" was downplayed or even left out. And the chain letter kept going and going long after August 2003 was history.

Every year I tell news media, when they call Sky & Telescope, the following:

"The Mars chain letter is not a bad thing, it's a good thing. It is an immunization. If you make a fool of yourself by sending it to your friends and family, you may be embarrassed enough not to send them the next e-mail chain letter you get, which may not be so harmless."

P. S.: The first place to check for facts about any internet rumor, hoax, or urban legend is www.snopes.com. Bookmark it.

Answer 4

Hello,
The best time to view the Planets is when they are high in the sky. Venus and Jupiter, are best summer Planets. All the others are best seen in winter. There for on Aug. 27 Mars will be below our current horizon and does not rise untill 12:41:39 am, and it transit at 7:46 am, and sets 2:51 pm. Mars is high is sky on the 27 th at 7:39:58 am. I'm at Lat. 34 N. and Lon. 111 W. The Mars thing is a hoax.....

Answer 5

Uh, don't get your hopes up too high.

This close approach was for August 27, 2003! It was nice, but not nearly a large as the full moon.

Someone forgot to add the 2003 to the message, so every year it gets sent out again.

No one really knows if there has been life on Mars. It has only been a couple of years since the presence of ancient water has been confirmed on Mars, so there is some hope. If there is still life remaining, it is probably microbial.

Answer 6

That is not going to happen.

This myth started in 2003. That year Mars came unusually close to Earth, but even at that distance it only looked like a bright star. Back then someone reported that Mars would show about as much detail in a back yard telescope as the Moon does when looked at without the telescope. Some news media, or bloggers or whoever, picked this up and repeated it without mentioning the telescope, and the myth started. It has been repeated every summer since. This year, Mars will not get very close to Earth at all.

Answer 7

This is completely inaccurate as stated, and bears only the slightest connection to any legitimate information. Mars did make a close approach to Earth four years ago, with optimum visibility on August 27, 2003. But Mars only appeared the size of a full moon if you were observing it with a 75-power magnification; the information about needing a telescope to see Mars at this size was carelessly dropped when the report was reproduced, and the inaccurate version has reappeared every summer since then.

Answer 8

It would be awesome, but unfortunately it's not true. This email was started in 2003, when Mars was the closest to the earth that it has ever been in record. However, even then it was not as large as the moon to the naked eye.
The last statement in the email is false. It will be just as close in 2018, it just won't come any CLOSER until 2287.
Sorry to disappoint.

Answer 9

Wow, this is getting as bad as all the moon hoax conspiracy questions.

A simple search of Answers would show you that this has been brought up and discussed at length COUNTLESS times.

And no. Mars will NEVER look as big as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars is so far away, even at its closest approach, that it will never seem more than a rusty speck in the sky.

Answer 10

This is a hoax. It occurred on August 27th, 2003. This humor has been circulating for a time period of 4 years.

Answer 11

Im sorry but it is completely impossible for mars to get that close. it would distort our own gravity and god knows what would happen then... In all actuallity Mars is 346.5M miles away, the decimal was moved, a clever move on whomever set this hoax into action...