Mars

[kellygrrrrrl]

This seems REALLY cool

____________________________________________

Mars

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.

& 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

[The_Dark]

I watched this last year all summer. I would get my kids up and take them outside to show them.. it's spectacular.

[kellygrrrrrl]

Not sure how to edit, but it should say 5000 years, not 500......on the topic description...

[Paper Hearts]

I remember that Mars was really close durring the blackout a couple years ago, too. My friend Ian and I climbed up on the roof of his apartment house with a few bottles and just laid around getting pissed and looking at space. You could see so much clearer, the sky, without the reflection of all of Detroit's lights.

[gothicmom]

awesome

[float]

Kelly I'm so in love with you

this will be great

you're always right on cue with info

[holliwood66]

Hmm! I have got to get my telescope out~

BTW, did anyone catch the Perseid meteor shower last night? I think the tail end

might be this evening.

[kellygrrrrrl]

Kelly I'm so in love with you

this will be great

you're always right on cue with info

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aww shucks :blushing :blushing ......someone sent this to me, and I was like WOW GOTTA SHARE!

[Goth Brooks]

hate to pee in the sandbox, and i'm too lazy to dig out the relevant article, but this is just another email hoax.

[float]

is that a fact?

[holliwood66]

I was wondering, my Astronomy prof. said explicitly that Mars was closest 2 years ago...so makes sense. Still, Meteors are fun to watch if the sky clears up

[float]

you too are climbing up the love meter

the transformer reference helped

[holliwood66]

heh! I've always had a Starscream fetish...

[Goth Brooks]

is that a fact?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NASA has an article debunking it, i'd try their website.

[The_Dark]

This is not a Hoax. Why do you think so many mars probes have been being launched over the last couple years? Why there seemed such an ergancy.. why it didn't take long to get there once launched....

It was actually at it's closest in 2003 and this year will get almost that close again.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/nightsky02.html

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

http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp

[Goth Brooks]

There's a rumor going around. You might have heard it at a 4th of July BBQ or family get-together. More likely you've read it on the Internet. It goes like this:

"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.

Every day the view improves. Mars is coming--and that's no hoax.

[Brenda Starrr]

I wanna see!!!!!!!

[Goth Brooks]

I wanna see!!!!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

October 30th at 0319 Universal Time

That's 11:19PM EST