Mars - closest to the earth in years

[B Calm]

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that
will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in
recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is
in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on
Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
75-power magnification

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the
beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.
and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are
closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty
convenient to see something that no human being has
seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
month.

Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

[Deja Q]

1. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Take a picture.

:D

[billyskank]

2. "Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye"

Nonsense. It says that Mars will be 34,649,589 miles away - assuming that's true, compare that to the distance to the moon: approx. 250,000 miles. Huge difference. Mars will not be clearly visible as anything other than a bright star.

[ikri]

5. My rough estimates

Suggest that in order for Mars to "look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" from 35 million miles away, Mars would need to be about 4 times the size of Jupiter.



It would be pretty impressive though

[sarge43]

9. It would be pretty impressive though

So would the tidal effects. :wow:

[billyskank]

10. Not much bigger than that

and it would be on the verge of becoming a star.

[sarge43]

6. Also, Mars is only twice the diameter of the Moon

Mars: 6,794km

Moon: 3,476km

[Jamastiene]

7. I'm with you.

There's just no way it would be as large as the moon. That would be too good to be true.

[Crabby Appleton]

11. It is just a misleadingly worded sentence

"At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye."

In other words, magnifying Mars by 75-power would make it look as large as the moon does unmagnified.

[billyskank]

12. Ah, the spurious paragraph break does not help

:)

[Guava Jelly]

3. someone posted this the other day

it's a hoax

[Patiod]

8. I've been "snopsing" that one back to people all month

and I wonder why none of my friends email me anymore....

[Ptah]

4. From space.com

The Planets in 2006

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/051230_night_sky.html

MARS: Shines like a star with a yellowish-orange hue.
This will evolve into an "off year" for Mars, although it will
be just coming off a splendid opposition during mid-autumn of
2005. It will appear brightest in 2006 on New Year's Day,
still glowing brilliantly at magnitude –0.6 in the constellation of
Aries and outshining all the stars in the sky with the exception
of Sirius and Canopus. It will then be 72 million miles from Earth,
but it will also be receding from us each night thereafter and hence
will be getting progressively fainter.

By March 1, it will appear more than 3½ times dimmer and by May 9
it will have fallen into the ranks of a second magnitude object.
Mars will pass just over one-half degree from Saturn in the
evening sky of June 17. A month later, it is all but gone from view,
becoming too deeply immersed in the solar glare to be seen. I
t will be in conjunction with the Sun on Oct. 23, becoming a
morning object. Not until about the middle of December will it
emerge from the bright morning twilight.





http://www.space.com/spacewatch/mars_preview_021108.html


Mars to Get Closer than Ever in Recorded History in 2003

Here's what happens:

On Aug. 28, 2003, Mars will be at "opposition," the moment when
the Sun, Earth and Mars will form a straight line; since we are closer
to the Sun than Mars, this is also when we are overtaking Mars in
our respective orbits .

Mars comes to opposition about every 26 months. But because of the
elliptical orbits of Earth and Mars, not all oppositions are created equal.
The 2003 opposition will be superior to all the others because Mars will
be very near to its closest point to the Sun, called perihelion,
when it arrives at opposition.

[Crabby Appleton]

13. wrong year, 03 not 06

Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp

[never cry wolf]

14. It's a hoax, from Spaceweather.com

Space Weather News for August 6, 2006
http://spaceweather.com

MARS HOAX: A bogus email is going around the Internet. It claims that Mars will be historically close to Earth on August 27, 2006--so close that Mars will look as large as the full Moon. This is not true. Here are the facts: On August 27th, Mars will be on the other side of the solar system, about 385 million kilometers from Earth. The red planet will look tiny and dim, nothing like a full Moon.

The "Mars Hoax" email first appeared in 2003. On August 27th of that year, Mars really did come historically close to Earth. But the email's claim that Mars would rival the Moon was grossly exaggerated. Every August since 2003, the email has staged a revival. It's as wrong now as it was then.

[Haole Girl]

17. Oh, thanks for the F.Y.I.

Still doesn't explain why the moon looks so bright, though. Guess I'll have to assume it is my imagination.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. I made the same mistake...

It'd be cool though.
Duckie

[Haole Girl]

16. Thanks for the news

I thought the moon looked unusually bright lately. Do you have an explanation for it? Beside the fact that we haven't seen a single cloud, in N. Texas, in two weeks?!

[mduffy31]

18. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

AND IF MARS IS A BIG AS THE FULL MOON....WE ARE ALL FUCKED!!!

That would mean that all of the orbits of the planets are messed up and we are all gonna fuckin' die!

[datasuspect]

19. isn't that where men are from

ah, now back to this nice chicken soup.

[Bucky]

20. "large as the full moon, Mars will lighten our gravity. Planes will...

...actually be pulled into Mars's atmosphere. Very tall buildings will need to install roof protectors to avoid losing their penthouses. People on mountain tops will be able to hold brief conversations with native Martians. Many earth clouds will actually rain "up" during this near pass, inadvertantly watering the red gardens of the planet Mars.

This is an astounding event that you will want to tell your chlidren about.