The August Mars Hoax is back
Though I was kinda surprised that a reasonably intelligent guy at work would believe this story and propegate it all his co-workers in an email, I was not at all shocked to find that my dad has yet again forwarded me the stupidest of chain emails. I've told him personally a million times that these forwarded emails are all bullshit and I've even debunked a few for him, but I guess he still doesn't believe me. So maybe it's time to, instead of forwarding it on down to my friends, reply back to all the poeple that forwarded it on down to me with the most nasty, you're-wrong-and-you're-stupid-and-here's-why email back at them. Maybe one day they'll all stop coming to me, or maybe....just maybe at least my dad will stop his forward button-clicking finger and think, "maybe it's a hoax."
The original malarky reads:
WOW!
*Two moons on 27th August 2007*
*27th August; the day the Whole World is waiting for ......
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 cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65 Million 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.
and had this come from complete strangers I would have gone off of them, but I went easy, replying:
Don't believe everything you read! ESPECIALLY if it's in an email fowarded from who knows who. I actually got this one at work, too, and I couldn't believe that anybody actually fell for it.
1. The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter and only 239,000 miles away. Mars is 4,225 miles in diameter but never gets less than 34 MILLION miles away, that's twice as big but 140 times more distant. Mars can never appear anywhere near the size of the moon unless if it were sitting just behind the moon or there were a giant lens out there between us.
2. This date is WAAAAY off. Take a look at the planets' positions on August 27th:
http://www.heavens-above.com/planets.asp?Y=2007&M=8&D=27&H=0&Lat=35.227&Lng=-80.843&Loc=Charlotte&TZ=EST&SZ=600
Mars will actually come closest to Earth in 2007 on December 18th at a distance of 54.9 million miles with an apparent diameter of 15.88 arcseconds and apparent brightness topping off at -1.64. In comparison, a full moon has apparent brightness of -12.6 and the Sun -26.7. The apparent diameter of the moon is a half a degree-- that's 1800 arcseconds or OVER 113 TIMES BIGGER THAN MARS! And this is on an even closer approach than what you've been led to believe!
3. This December date is even not a spectacularly close encounter by any means either. 2003 broke a record for our closet encounter with Mars at 34.6 million miles. For a list, go to:
http://seds.org/~spider//spider/Mars/marsopps.html
The only scrapnel of truth in this chain letter is that there will be another record oppposition in the year 2287 by 34.6 million miles....but even then...no red glow with which to read your newspaper at night.
Even then, I wouldn't believe everything I read.










