27 august, mars closest to earth

[Skunk]

how does this affect me?, KB has a scientist?

In the simple terms; Mars will not be close on August 27 2006.

Do you also need to be shown how the above statement relates to the post that started this thread?

[Steam]

MARS HOAX

based on a press release by Marilyn Head, RASNZ Publicity Officer, and Brian Loader

Just when it seemed the Moon Hoax had been laid safely to rest, up pops another one even more bizarre than the suggestion that the 17 Apollo missions did not take place and no-one landed on the moon.

This time it is the Mars Hoax. A global email promising a spectacular event in late August that "no-one has ever seen before!" when Mars will look "as big as the moon" is circulating, much to the consternation of astronomers.

Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, Brian Loader, says the Society has been inundated with requests for more information about this bogus event which dates from the August 2003 opposition of Mars when the red planet came closer than it has for thousands of years, and was very spectacular. The hoax email has re-surfaced in August each year since then.

However even in 2003, Mars certainly did not appear as big as the moon as the email seems to promise. You have to read the it carefully to see it says that when Mars was magnified 75 times through a telescope, it looked as big as the moon to the unaided eye!"

In August this year, Mars is very low in the sky and only just visible briefly after sunset. It is fairly bright, but not as spectacular as Jupiter, the only planet that is well placed for observing this month.

Some parts of Europe will see Mars occulted by the Moon on August 25th but this event is not visible in the southern Hemisphere.

It is disappointing that the Internet is being used to promote such misinformation, particularly when children are encouraged to anticipate something that does not and cannot happen. Just as children can be turned on to science by observing many celestial wonders, they can be turned off when it appears that "science" has let them down by failing to meet unrealistic expectations.