Is Mars supposed to be really big on August 27th?

Question

I got an e-mail saying I should go look for Mars to be as big as the moon on August 27th. Is this true? Because I think thats B.S.

Answer 1

Mars will be close and therefore bright but the size of the planet will still be a point of light to the naked eye.

Answer 2

No, it isn't true. Astronomers (and us wannabes) get really annoyed by having to correct the false impressions of astronomical events which were created by hoaxers to advance themselves socially or economically.

Raymond gave the right answer.

Mars is on the other side of the sun just now. On 27 August 2008, Mars will be in Virgo not far from Mercury and Venus. It will be 2.4038 AU from Earth, and its apparent angular diameter will be 3.9". (The moon's angular diameter is about 1800.0".) Mars' apparent magnitude will be +1.7.

Answer 3

B.S.

( I prefer B.F.:  Bull feathers -- it's more practical when in polite company)

This is how it started:

In 2003, Mars was closest to Earth (in opposition), as it is every 780 days. In 2003, it was to be the closest to us that it had ever been in thousands of years.

Someone had written that IF you look through a telescope with a magnification of 75x, THEN Mars would look as big as the Moon looks when you see it naked eye.

Some journalist forgot the reference to the telescope and simply printed that Mars would be as big as the Moon.

Hoaxers jumped on the occasion to predict all kinds of stuff (there was even a book announcing that Nibiru -- the fictitious planet -- would use the opportunity to destroy us -- or some such rot).

Since then, every year (except last year, because there was an eclipse of the Moon on that date), the hoax is repeated.

The last opposition was in late December 2007 and the next one will be in January 2010 (this is a rare interval where there are no oppositions in two consecutive calendar years).

In August, the apparent diameter of Mars will be 4" (4 seconds). Even with a 75x telescope, it will be difficult to even see it as a disk.

by comparison, the Moon has an apparent diameter of over 1800" (half a degree -- there are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute).

Answer 4

Nope, it's BS.... It was the closest it'll be for 60,000 years about 3 years ago.  

Answer 5

  Mars will never change it's size.

Answer 6

No. Mars currently appears about 1/500th the diameter of the Moon and it's physically impossible for it to come close enough to appear as large as the Moon. This comes from a hoax e-mail which circulates every year at this time. For more information: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/hsblog/2007/0...

Answer 7

This is an old piece of islamic fantasy.  Try this.  Go outside tonight and look at Mars.  It will appear as a red star. Just like it always does.  If in 7 days it was going to be the size of the moon, shouldn't it be bigger than that?  Is it going to stay the same size until the 26th then suddenly accelerate towards Earth?  How will it accomplish this wonderful feat.  Mars is in orbit around the sun.    Is it suddenly going to fire massive rocket engines?  I wouldn't base my ideas on the solar system based on some nitwits email. People would laugh at me if I did that.