Mars Hoax Day is once again here, so if you get an email telling you to look for a giant red planet in the night sky, just ignore it.
For nearly a decade, Mars Hoax Day has turned up each August 27, spreading by email and claiming that Mars will appear in the sky just as large as the full moon.
Wikipedia breaks it down like this: Mars Hoax Day originated in an e-mail in 2003 that claimed on August 27, Mars would be so close to earth that it would appear in the night sky as large as the full moon. After taking a year off, the hoax returned every year between 2005 and this year, fooling people into scanning the night sky for Mars.
The original Mars Hoax Day may not have been intentional. An email message communicated that Mars and Earth in 2003 were the closest they had been in close to 60,000 years. This was misinterpreted to claim that Mars would appear supersized and, as exaggerations often do, spread like wildfire by way of email forwards.
The text of the Mars Hoax Day email has remained largely the same since its introduction in 2003. Using pseudo-scientific language, it appears convincing enough to the untrained eye:
“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 (55,763,108 km) 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 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.”
But even NASA spoke up against Mars Hoax Day. In 2005, NASA published an article debunking the email hoax, or at least most of it. NASA did note that Mars was set to appear close to earth but would only appear as a pinprick of light.
But it’s a good thing Mars Hoax Day isn’t real, NASA added. If Mars did come close enough to earth to rival the moon in size, its gravity would actually alter the Earth’s orbit and bring up destructive tides.
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"Misinterpreted" is a glorification of "stupid".
Whomever believes this really deserves to be scanning the skies for the entire night.
The Email does say:
" At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
You need a telescope for Mars to appear as large as the moon.
ha! well said
My sister fell for this and emailed me about it. I was amazed that anyone would believe this let alone someone in my family. She was dead serious.
And if you believe this, you also will believe Mimas is actually a Death Star in disguise.
Sammy Hagar bought Mars back in '74 while he was in Montrose. Hence the name "The Red Planet."
Sammy Hagar bought Mars back in '74 while he was in Montrose. Hence the name "The Red Planet."
Sammy Hagar bought Mars back in '74 while he was in Montrose. Hence the name "The Red Planet."
War of The Worlds Begins anew.
yeah…but…the physics of it being there just dont seem to work out. lol
I thought the mars hoax day was sending pictures from the remote control car that is sitting in the desert somewhere and getting idiots to believe they are seeing pictures from mars.
This "holiday" deserves as much attention as "Talk Like A Pirate Day".
ahh the foolish gullible masses…
Stupid!
What kind of hoax would have info that made no sense? No object of apparent magnitude -2.9 would be very large, and 29 arcseconds is about 1/60 of the moon. This was a misreading, not a hoax. The sentence "At 75x mag… to the naked eye" is simply poorly written, but if you read it to mean that Mars will be the same size as the moon in the sky you are even less literate than the original writer of the sentence was.
I may have stupid what you wrote there.
I want to hear more about the destructive tides it would bring.