Is earth going to look like it is going to have two moons today or is it a hoax??? august 27 2008?

Question

Is earth going to look like it is going to have two moons today or is it a hoax??? august 27 2008?

Answer 1

Hoax. It was started by a chain email first sent a couple years ago. Mars is actually almost directly behind the sun. You'd be lucky to see Mars at all, much less at the size of our moon. Mars was closest back in 2003.  

Answer 2

  Hoax.

Answer 3

HOAX!

Answer 4

not two moons, mars will be much more visible than it usually is.  it won't be even close to the size of the moon, but it will be larger than most stars, and it will be red.  

Answer 5

A hoax.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2...

Answer 6

hoax

Answer 7

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 in 2003).

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

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).

These days, the apparent diameter of Mars is 4" (4 seconds). Even with a 75x telescope, it will be difficult to even see it as a disk. That's because Mars is so far away (and difficult to see as you have to look almost in the same direction as the Sun).

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).

Mars is far from being as big as the Moon.

Answer 8

It is a complete misquote of an wildly-incorrect statement from 2003.  Its one of those chain letters that just won't die - it wasn't accurate in 2003 and its even more inaccurate now.

Answer 9

Let me get this straight:

MARS WILL NEVER EVER APPROACH  CLOSE ENOUGH TO LOOK LIKE THE MOON. Ok? Its simply to far away, to small and besides, it would require its orbit to change dramatically. Barring the aliens on mars which dont exist to build rockets for no reason, and somehow get the power that they dont have to push the planet closer to earth, it wont happen. EVER.

MARS IS SMALL AND FAR. The moon is smaller, but MUCH closer.

Komprende?

Answer 10

Its funny some people on here are star experts. : ) Its NOT a hoax.. its real. be looking. You wont see another one for 60,000 years.

Answer 11

While it is liekly a hoax, it is possible considering that sundogs have been well documented in the past. A sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that gives the illusion there are two suns in the sky. If it can happen with the sun, then I don't see why it can't happen with the moon. But, of course, there wouldn't be two moons, like there aren't actually two suns when one sees a sundog. It's all an optical illsuion created by the intricate complexity of nature.

And if anyone says Mars will appear as a moon, NAH! Way too far away. If you see Mars looking like a moon, then there are some serious things to worry about. Something would be very wrong in the universe.

Answer 12

Internet Hoax! Here is my blog article on this HOAX!

http://www.neighborsgo.com/boatman1

This thing just will NOT die of natural causes! About once per year the members of the Texas Astronomical Society start getting emails about MARS being as LARGE as the moon-- something like this email below



Two Moons on 27 August (Wed)

"The 27th of August is what the Whole World is waiting for...*The 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 culminate 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. Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again."

This is a complete and total Internet HOAX! The actual article published several years ago when Mars made it's closest approach to Earth in hundreds of years WAS: "THROUGH A TELESCOPE Mars will appear about as large as the Moon".

This has morphed into the Internet Mars hoax where Mars will appear in the sky "as large as the moon". Guess what IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! Mars is always a tiny point of light in the sky-- and it's even very small when viewed using a telescope!

It's distance from the Earth varies from 36 million miles to about 250 million miles! SON! --- that's a LONG LONG WAY OFF!

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PLANETS/mars....

So if you get one of these emails IGNORE IT! --- or send a reply debunking this Internet urban legend. The Mars-Moon Hoax is just as bad as the Coriolis Force Effect HOAX-- but that's another story.  Wink

Clear Skies!



boatman1