Does anyone else know this?

Question

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August 2008

It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles off 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.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Answer 1

This email has been going around each summer since 2003.

Mars is currently farther from Earth than the Sun.

In 2003, Mars in a telescope at 100x was about the size of the full Moon (without a telescope).  This let you get an idea how much detail you could see.  Just look at the Moon.

The Earth will not have 2 moons in the sky this year, even if one of your eyes is looking through a telescope.

The next Mars opposition is January 2010.  It won't be as good as in 2003, but it will be pretty good.

Jupiter is large in the sky at the moment.

Answer 2

mars will be over 200 million miles away from earth that day, on the other side of the sun.

idiot

Answer 3

Mars will be the next planet for mankind to live. There is water on Mars.

Answer 4

Can you stay up and take pictures please as i will be asleep. or better still tell us where you got this info so we know if we should believe you!!

Answer 5

No. This is total nonsense.

Please check your facts before you make yourself look any more foolish.

Answer 6

Oh, god, that ridiculous statement is going around AGAIN.  I thought we had seen the last of this particular stupidity.

Mars gets very bright in our skies every few years when Earth is as far from the sun as it gets (at aphelion) and Mars is as close to the sun as it gets (at perihelion) and we are both on the same side of the sun at that time.

The "it will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" is pure hogwash - the original quote (from years ago) stated that Mars would appear IN A TELESCOPE as large as the full moon appears to the naked eye.  Mars is usually rather small in backyard telescopes.

Think about it just for a moment.

The moon is 240 thousand miles away.  Mars will be 34 million miles away.  For Mars at that distance to appear as large as the full moon would mean it would have to be about 150 times larger than it actually is.

Answer 7

thats wicked awesome

Answer 8

Not only will "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again" NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it at all!

This is a hoax, an urban legend, a silly tale believed only by the gullible.

HTH

Charles

Answer 9

um...no I didnt

Answer 10

That is absolutely NOT true.

Get a life.

Answer 11

Oh my God ! Not only in Earth planet there is competition.

I'm kind of disappointed because "My beautiful Moon" not only has to share the firmament, but because we will compare her with him???

I going to be sure that night she looks so pretty that we can forget soon that 'the other" was close. Anyways 2.287 is still so far.

I don't feel like share this with my club.......sorry Mars!

Answer 12

I can't believe someone is stating this as true in this astronomy section.  Can we and everyone who is going to think this is true, only try a little to use common sense.

Let's think about this.  1st, Mars and the Moon are close to being the same size, Mars being slightly bigger.  Now that we know that, lets look at the mileage they are from our view.  The moon is 239,000 (two hundred thirty nine thousand) miles away from us.   This is the kicker, Mars is 34,000,000 (thirty four million) miles away from us.   Can you see why the Moon and Mars will not even be close to being the same size in the sky?    

Ok, I'll tell you.   Mars and the Moon are close to being the same size but the Moon is only 239,000 miles away from us while Mars is a whopping 34,000,000 away from us.  Mars will be the size of your average size star.  If you look to the south-southeast after the Sun goes down, you will see a very bright star, the brightest star in the night sky.  That is not a star but is Jupiter.  As bright as Jupiter is for the next few months, Mars will not be close to being as big and bright as Jupiter is in the sky.

Mars is not or will it ever be as big as the moon is in our sky.  This article comes around every year in August for the last three years.  It's on the net, on the radio and in newspapers, and I don't know why.  It is totally wrong and impossible to happen.   I would bet that the original writers are proving a point to themselves that humans are illiterate in science and will believe anything they are told.  

Either that or they too are illiterate and using their common sense (or lack of it) left them showing us how much they lack in science knowledge.  Whatever thier answer is,  IT IS NOT TRUE AND STOP REPEATING THIS BECAUSE IT SHOWS OTHERS YOUR LACK OF COMMON SENSE AND KNOWLEDGE.

Besides that, mars is behind the Sun and won't be visible during August.

Answer 13

Wasn't the same thing supposed to last year... and the year before... and the year before that. It won't happen. Mars came as close as it is going to be in 300 years a few years ago. Mars will never be the size, or even close to the size of a full moon.

If Mars was going to be 34.65 miles from Earth it would look a lot larger than the moon seeing as the moon is on average 250,000 miles away.

If Mars was within 34.64 miles of Earth I would be able to spot the rover with my telescope which I won't be able to do. Mars is also far away from the Earth right now... close to opposite the position of the Earth. Mars isn't close at all, and it won't come any closer by next Wednesday. So have fun waiting outside all night. And when you don't see anything, don't feel stupid. Just feel misinformed because thats whats happening.

Answer 14

If Mars were to really be that close, then Phoebus and Daemos will be playing snooker against our Moon. Then the tide will turn, literally.

Answer 15

Use your head for something other than polishing your r****m....

Answer 16

No, I didn't know but its interesting if true, I've noted it and will take a look. I'll be looking out for the moon before Ramadan to see how it appears the first and last night of Ramadan - between 30th August and 2nd September.

Answer 17

ok

Answer 18

so mars will be in our atmosphere...and almost 7000 times closer than our own satellite... yet still only look as large as the moon despite being twice as big. unless we live in some fancy pants universe dominated by unicorns and magic beans methinks this might be a tad inaccurate

Answer 19

thank you i,ll be looking up

Answer 20

No.  This is one of those urban legends that goes around every year or so.  Mars is on the far side of the sun and getting farther away every day.  At the end of this month, we won't be able to see it at all.  And it *never* gets that big.  In 2003 there was an article that said Mars would look as big in a powerful telescope as the moon looks to the naked eye.  This was misinterpreted.

At least that time, Mars was on a relatively close pass of the earth, but only a couple percent closer than any other time it is at opposition.  The next opposition is in 2010.

Answer 21

1 mars at its britest has aparent magnitude=-2.8

2. standard full moon=-12.5...VERY much briter than the britest Mars.

3. Astronomers yuze weerd skale sumwot like exponential

different in magnitude=12.5-2.8=9.7

This meen full moon is 7,586 times as brite as bitest Mars

Answer 22

  Nope,it's news to me.

Answer 23

Hoax alert!

Although it will be funny to have millions of people step outsite and look at the sky on the same night, it's like one of those funny experiments when loads of people do random things together.