I got this weird email...which i don't agree with...please read and give opinnion with data...thanks

MARS SPECTACULAR!
>
>
> 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


IS This TRUE?????

Welcome to the BABB.

That's true. But it happened in 2003...

http://space.about.com/cs/mars/a/marsclose.htm

Harald

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Snopes mentioned it as well, it's actually an old email about Mars from 2003.

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And it's about as spectacular as saying: normally, you can come no closer than 5 metres to the Mona Lisa, but today you get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it up close and personal from a distance of 4.99 metres.

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It´s not that small. Mars has an orbit of great eccentricity, which causes its distance from the Sun to vary 20%. The distance from Earth may vary by similar figures.

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I meant the difference between the closest approach in a 'normal' year and the closest approach this time around (well, in 2003). Of course, when Mars is on the far side (insert Gary Larson cartoon here), it's a wee bit smaller

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

I just wanted to mention that this part is patently wrong. Not even at the optimal moment did Mars look like anything other than a point of light to an unaided observer.

> Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO
> ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Sure we will. It just won't be quite as close within our lifetimes.

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With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

I also fell for this uin the beginning. But the whole quote is

> 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.

and that's okay. Those blank lines are misleading.

Harald

__________________
"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Yes, the sentence was deliberately broken up in order to mislead - you read the end of the sentence, as a seperate line, without realising it's a continuation of what was said in the previous paragraph.

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

Quite clever in it's way, I suppose.

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Andy

Manager Ukweatherworld

Hmm... under magnification and naked eye? Can you even have both of those at the same time?

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þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

They could argue that the naked-eye bit refers to the Full Moon.

Magnified Mars as Big as Naked-Eye Full Moon!

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Ahha! Now I understand. Heh, I guess the email was too devious for its own good, in my case.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

It sure was big in my scope. What a great view.

I saw Mars the other day and was tempted to set up the scope just to look at it but I'll wait until it rises earlier. And this time I'm getting some pictures.

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It wasn't even correct when it made the rounds two years ago.

Remember, there's a website attached to this bulletin board.

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The Bad Astronomer
http://www.badastronomy.com
badastro@badastronomy.com

Thanks, Phil ...

Good to See you, Again!!!!

=D>

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We will get fairly close to Mars again in the Fall, with closest approach on Nov. 7th (but not quite as close as in Aug. 2003).

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I got this email from my brother recently, and the local paper actually talked about it on its front page.
Depends.

The Earth gets close to Mars about every two years and two months, about when Mars is in opposition to the Sun. For the six close approaches before that one in August of 2003, they were a lot farther. The closest of the six was 21% farther, and the farthest was 81% farther--nearly twice as far.

Real close approaches to Mars only happen every 15 or 17 years, so 2003 was a bit of a treat.

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http://cleardarksky.com/c/DrhmNCcs0.gif

yes, i believe 2003 was the closest

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Yes, pretty much. See in 2003 Mars was the closest to the Sun (perihelion or something) and Earth was the farthest (aphelion). In addition Jupiter was on the far side of the solar system and thus was pulling the least on Mars so yeah Mars was pretty much as close as it'll get (until it breaks orbit and slams into us ) but it comes close every two years or so.

I'm still waiting for it to get closer before I drag out the big scope.

EDIT *now with pictures!!!!*: As we can see here, Mars and Earth are pretty close with Jupiter and its gravity on the far side. That was 2003. Now jump to 2005 and you can see that Mars is again close though not as close and Jupiter is not as opposed as it was in 2003. This all makes minor differences but Mars will still be a great show. Just not media/spam worthy.

(earth is of course the blue ball and Mars is the red one)

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I have got this post as well. I have referred the sender to this thread and the news thread.

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I recall hearing this one on TV a few weeks ago, my first thought was "nice going guys, you're reading an old story". A friend of mine just asked me about this last night after getting an E-mail from his brother about it. I guess someone saw the original 2003 news piece, and thought it was new info.

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Beware the Mars Hoax

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It would have been nice if they'd included the snippet about 75x magnification

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http://cleardarksky.com/c/DrhmNCcs0.gif

Greetings,

I received that email from an eccentric relative of mine (she emailed me the picture of the "eye of god", I'm sure she thinks it really IS).

I was going to let her know of the errors in the email, but I didn't want to tip her boat............

Regards, tbm

Kucharek and Essan both addressed this earlier, but when my friend showed the Email I mentioned earlier, there was a paragraph break in the middle of the sentence:

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

This probably caused most of the confusion, not to mention that this happened 2 years ago. Another popular myth busted by the BABB

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Same situation for me this weekend. One of our camping families was "SO EXCITED" to show me some information about Mars. She made copies of the email and gave them to everyone (About 10 families). I tried to explain some of the critical points, and everyone was half listening which caused it to become a real fun discussion.