Mars Hoax

hoax Recently, I’ve been getting some emails and text messages from my friends saying that Mars will be coming close to Earth and will be as big as the Moon, and so it’ll be like there are two moons in the sky. The dates which were being provided were somewhere between the 27th and the 30th of August.
Well, let me clarify these doubts briefly. Firstly, if Mars was to come so close to Earth so as to seem as big as the Moon, it would appear somewhat like in the image below.

This how Mars look if it was as close as the Moon

If Mars ever appeared as large as the Moon, everyone on Earth would probably die very soon. This is because Mars would disturb the orbit of the Earth because of its size and the subsequent gravitational pull. Also, if you want to see it that big, you’ll have to look through a 75x telescope.

This is how Mars would look if seen by 75 power telescope

Secondly, the event actually took place on the 27th of August, 2003, when Mars came closer to Earth than at any other time during the past 50,000 years. Even then, it wasn’t close enough to appear as big as the Moon. Its distance from Earth was less than 55.76 million kilometers (34.65 million miles). It seems a huge distance but in astronomy it’s pretty less. The next time Mars approaches this close will be in 2287.

Painted green by a flashlight, is an astronomer pointing towards Mars Aug. 26, 2003, the last time Mars was so close to Earth. Photo credit: Thad V'Soske.

In October 2005, this rumor again occurred, though then, it was said to be 13 million kilometers further apart from the Earth than during the 2003 event.

So the conclusion will be that the closest encounter yet to take place between the Earth and Mars was on the 27^th of August, 2003, and the next such encounter is expected to take place in 2287. Till then any rumors of Mars getting close to Earth are fake.

Article by Harris Kamran

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