Mars hoax dupes stargazers - Science Recorder

A popular hoax suggesting that Mars will appear the size of the moon in the night sky due to its close passage to Earth has reappeared after a three-year break, Yahoo News reports. The hoax, which began circulating the internet in 2004, is sometimes known or titled "Mars Spectacular." In the original hoax, an email message was created somewhere and sent out, and then forwarded thousands of times as people bought into the idea that on August 27 the red planet would make an incredibly close pass by Earth, thus appearing to be the size of the moon in the sky. The Mars hoax has been incredibly popular over the years, being forwarded thousands of times as an email and now being shared to thousands via social media. It even has its own page on Wikipedia and the NASA website. The message also now includes a photograph of the moon next to an enlarged  representation of Mars. The wording states that people should go outside on August 27 lest they miss a once in a lifetime event. As was to be expected, those who went outside on August 27 to observe the moon-sized Mars were disappointed. Not only did Mars not appear significantly bigger than normal, in fact it was not even visible in the night sky. The Mars hoax began in 2003, when the Earth and Mars did have a close encounter, so-to-speak, NASA explains. On August 27, 2003, Mars was only 56 million kilometers away from Earth. While that might not appear significantly close, it was the closest that Earth had been to the red planet in 60,000 years. Even at this distance, however, the planet still only appeared as a bright star in the sky, not even coming close to the size of the moon. The original photo of Mars as the size of the moon must have been created with a program like Photoshop. For those who ventured outside to see Mars on the 27th, all is not lost. Jupiter was visible in the sky in the constellation of Capricorn, also appearing as a bright star. Planets typically appear like stars in the sky, though they might appear a little bigger and brighter, allowing a viewer to distinguish them. Mars is currently approaching Earth, but at a very slow pace. In April, Mars will make a somewhat close pass by Earth again, approaching to within 92.3 million kilometers of our planet. There is no need to rush outside to view it though– people will have many opportunities to view the red planet in their lifetime. via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHx3l6PDjHKNZLzltFTEEGgQfUrwA&url=http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/mars-hoax-dupes-stargazers/

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