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Thursday, August 27, 2015

No, Mars Won't Be As Big as the Moon in the Sky Tonight

Sorry, skywatchers: Despite what you may have heard, Mars won't look as big as the moon overhead tonight (Aug. 27).

The "Mars Hoax" has been popping up every Aug. 27 since 2003, when it was born in a widely misinterpreted email. The unknown sender of that message was trying to get people excited about an unusually close approach of Mars to Earth in late August 2003.

"The encounter will culminate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles (55,763,108 kilometers) of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky," one paragraph of the email reads. "It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot."

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus! People are so stupid that they would think that mars could be big as the moon without ripping the inner solar system to shreds. But I go and make the statement that jet fuel can't melt steel and they tell me to put on a tin foil hat. I can't understand it.

Anonymous said...

These are the same hoaxers that said Obama was born in Hawaii, he is a Christian, he is honest and trustworthy..

Anonymous said...

Mars will be close enough that Sheila Jackson Lee should be able to see where the astronauts planted the flag.

Anonymous said...

Well duh,I thought it would look like 2 moons.Thanks for clearing that up.