Mars In August

[Hurricane Debby]

My step dad forwarded me an email this morning about Mars in August. Apparantly, this month and next, earth is catching up with mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the 2 planets in recorded history.The next time it may come this close won't be until 2287.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the sky and will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Can anyone tell me if this is true or just a load of old toosh ??!!!

[Crepuscular Ray]

Someone's winding your dad up. It's complete tosh.

It was at opposition (closest approach) in January, and I think had its closest approach for several generations a few years ago. By the end of August it will be low down in the west after sunset, in a pretty little grouping with Venus and Saturn, both of which will be brighter than it (Venus much more so). It won't even be as bright as the brightest stars.

It's less than twice the actual size of the Moon (which is about a quarter of a million miles away) and at closest approach comes to within about 45 million miles of Earth. It can never appear to be bigger to the naked eye than a small disk.

Hope this helps.

[Backtrack]

Also got this email.

It's meant to be the size of the moon?

[Hurricane Debby]

I have to say I did have a question mark over it. Who puts these things together and emails them ?!

[pottyprof]

Some details of the hoax here.. http://www.snopes.com/science/astronomy/brightmars.asp

It's a good site to bookmark as it has loads of these myths listed.

[A.J]

Someone's winding your dad up. It's complete tosh.

It was at opposition (closest approach) in January, and I think had its closest approach for several generations a few years ago. By the end of August it will be low down in the west after sunset, in a pretty little grouping with Venus and Saturn, both of which will be brighter than it (Venus much more so). It won't even be as bright as the brightest stars.

It's less than twice the actual size of the Moon (which is about a quarter of a million miles away) and at closest approach comes to within about 45 million miles of Earth. It can never appear to be bigger to the naked eye than a small disk.

Hope this helps.

Absolutely....Mars has a diameter of roughly 4000 miles,the moon roughly 2000, so it doesnt take degree level mathematics to work out that if Mars appeared as big as the moon in our skies, then it would be time to put your head between your legs and kiss your backside goodbye, as Mars has suddenly moved ooh, say 44.5 million miles right towards us! :lol:

[laserguy]

This any good to y'all?

http://www.fourmilab...n=0%B0

[Hurricane Debby]

Thanks all, how embarrassing ! I should have realised it was a hoax. And its been in circulation since 2003 !!! Doh !

[Weather-history]

An old chestnut this one. Every year there is a thread on it.

[frogesque]

The close approach of August 27th 2003 was a good opportunity to see Mars with the naked eye. It was however not realy that bright and Venus would still outshine it on a good day. My memory of the approach however was October of that year when, though not at it brightest, was still pretty good hanging in the southern sky around midnight. The interesting bit is we had one of the best auroa seasons back then and during a brilliant display the redness of Mars was enhanced by a red auroral backckground extending well to the south. There was also a full corona that night!

A truely unforgettable experience!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3184157.stm

Sadly Mars never was (nor will it ever be) as big or bright as the full moon as some of the more exagerated e-mails claim.

[AderynCoch]

Yes, the 2003 approach was about as close as Mars gets (closest for 60,000 years) and though appearing quite brilliant (at least as bright as Jupiter) it never gets anywhere near as large or bright as the Moon.

Mars does have the largest variation in brightness of all the planets in the night sky: at its point farthest from Earth, it's barely brighter than Polaris.

[Hodgheg]

O dear this hoax seems to appear every year, if mars did come that close most of life on earth would be destroyed due to gravitational effects. People allways fall for it ha. Yes i believe i heard on the sky at night that mars would be closest for a few thousand years. Looked quite prominant in the winter sky, very bright and rivaled venus. Think that was around 07 or 08 though

[sunny starry skies]

Mars in August... is very faint and low in the western sky not too far from Venus.

Mars in August 2003 was bright and impressive, but hardly like the Moon! Here's a shot from where I was around the closest approach in our lifetimes - Frogesque you reminded me with the aurora, there's Mars, northern lights (near the southern horizon) and a couple of small glaciers from 66 degrees north in Iceland. Uranus even makes a cameo appearance as a virtually invisible speck/trail to Mars' upper right. No red aurora that night (28th) or the previous night though for me:

sss

Edited August 6, 2010 by sunny starry skies