Is it true that Mars will be closest to earth on 27th Aug 2008?

Question

Is it true that Mars will be closest to earth on 27th Aug 2008?

Answer 1

No.  Nor is it true that Mars will appear as large as the moon on that date.  It will appear as a small bright star, just as it does every other day.

Answer 2

Please tell me you haven't fallen for that 2nd moon nonsense.  I understand this is some sort of Islamic fantasy.  Obviously devout Moslems can be just as gullible as devout Christians. It is now the 20th of August.  The size of Mars now is inconsequentially smaller that it could be in 8 days.  Or are you expecting it to suddenly accelerate?  I've seen the silly, if well produced,internet pages.  Living proof that the internet is filled with appalling rubbish.  

Answer 3

No.  The close approach to Mars is not an annual event because Mars moves round the Sun at a different velocity to that of Earth.   Just because it happened on 27 August 2003 does not mean it happens on 27 August every year.  It is possible that it can be furthest from the Earth on 27 August some year.

Answer 4

Not true. 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 5

On that date Mars will be 2,22,911,198.6 miles from Earth. Back in 2003 it was *much* closer -- 34,673,009.62 miles, the closest approach in the last 50,000 years.

Answer 6

NO!

A few years back Mars was in opposition and the closest it had been to Earth in a long time, and it happened on August 27th. Ever since then there has been disinformation out there saying that Mars will be as big as the moon on August 27th.

It is a hoax

Answer 7

no. not even close.

this is that idiotic second moon email garbage.

Answer 8

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 9

Raymond;s answer is right except for one thing.  In 2007, despite the eclipse, the Mars hoax was in full swing.  

Answer 10

No

It was closest to Earth on 27 August 2003.  That was five years ago.