posted July 26, 2005 09:10 AM              

Better late than never?!?!?!?!

posted July 27, 2005 02:53 AM              

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular."

"Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest

approach between the two planets in recorded history."

"On August 27th … Mars will look as large as the

full moon."

And finally, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS

AGAIN."

Those are snippets from a widely-circulated email.

Only the first sentence is true. The Red Planet is

about to be spectacular. The rest is a hoax.

Here are the facts: Earth and Mars are converging for

a close encounter this year on October 30th at 0319

Universal Time. Distance: 69 million kilometers. To

the unaided eye, Mars will look like a bright red

star, a pinprick of light, certainly not as wide as

the full Moon.

Disappointed? Don't be. If Mars did come close enough

to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's

orbit and raise terrible tides.

Sixty-nine million km is good. At that distance, Mars

shines brighter than anything else in the sky except

the Sun, the Moon and Venus. The visual magnitude of

Mars on Oct. 30, 2005, will be -2.3. Even inattentive

sky watchers will notice it, rising at sundown and

soaring overhead at midnight.

You might remember another encounter with Mars, about

two years ago, on August 27, 2003. That was the

closest in recorded history, by a whisker, and

millions of people watched as the distance between

Mars and Earth shrunk to 56 million km. This October's

encounter, at 69 million km, is similar. To casual

observers, Mars will seem about as bright and

beautiful in 2005 as it was in 2003.

Although closest approach is still months away, Mars

is already conspicuous in the early morning. Before

the sun comes up, it's the brightest object in the

eastern sky, really eye-catching. If you have a

telescope, even a small one, point it at Mars. You can

see the bright icy South Polar Cap and strange dark

markings on the planet's surface.

One day people will walk among those dark markings,

exploring and prospecting, possibly mining ice from

the polar caps to supply their settlements. It's a key

goal of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration: to return

to the Moon, to visit Mars and to go beyond.

</Quote>

The following Sites have a more detailed explaination:

1.)http://www.skyinsight.net/wiki/index.php?title=Mars_will_be_as_large_as_the_Moon