According to the latest version of an email rumor circulating since 2003, August 27 will bring the closest 'encounter' between Mars and Earth in recorded history, and it will look as if there are two moons in the night sky.
Description: Email rumor / Hoax
Circulating since: 2006
Status: False
Email example contributed by Susan T., 25 July 2007:
FW: TWO MOONSMARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS
** Two moon on 27 August ***
27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for.............
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky Starting August.
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked Eye. This will happen On Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch The sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The Next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.
Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY Will ever see it again.
Comments: The text of this rumor was roughly accurate when a version of it first began circulating in the summer of 2003. It was outdated when it went around again in 2005, however, and just plain false when it appeared for the third and fourth times in 2006 and 2007. It is now 2008 and "Two Moons on August 27" is making the email rounds again. How many times can a "once in a lifetime" event occur?
On August 27, 2003 the oscillating orbits of Mars and Earth did, in fact, bring the two planets closer together than at any other time during the past 50,000 years. And though Mars never actually appeared "as large as the full moon to the naked eye" -- not even close -- it was indeed, for a few special days in 2003, among the brightest objects in the night sky.
October 2005 brought another well-publicized "close encounter," though in that case Earth and Mars were about 13 million kilometers further apart than during the 2003 event.
Nothing so spectacular is predicted for 2008.
Previously:
Close Encounter with Mars on August 27 (2003)
Netlore Archive, July 2003Mars Spectacular on August 27 (2006)
Netlore Archive, July 2006
News updates:
UAE Astronomers Reject Rumors of 'Second Moon'
GulfNews.com, 22 August 2008Mars Hoax Email Floods Planetarium Website
Times of India, 19 August 2008Mars as Big as the Moon: It's Baaaaack
Discover / Bad Astronomy blog, 19 August 2008
Last updated: 08/25/08
