Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
So says our friends at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute:
ROSMAN – As Aug. 27 approaches, beware of the Mars Hoax. Astronomers at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) point out that on Aug. 27, 2003, the orbits of both Mars and the earth were oriented in space such that we were particularly close to the red planet. In fact, at a distance of about 34 million miles we were closer to Mars than we had been for almost 60,000 years. Mars was particularly bright in the evening skies and, observed with an instrument of about 75 power, it would look about as large as the moon does to the naked eye. So astronomers and the public became very excited and there were Mars observing parties in observatories and back yards around the world.
What happened next? Well, the earth is moving faster around the sun than Mars since it is closer to our central star than the red planet. Thus, as the earth passed Mars, a point called opposition by astronomers, and moved away, Mars faded into the distance. Because of the motions of these two planets, the earth catches up with Mars and passes it once every 780 days. So, it was November 2005 before we had another opposition of Mars. But that time, the orbits were not as close and Mars was 43 million miles away. Again, in December 2007 its closest approach was 55 million miles.
Nevertheless, as Aug. 27, 2004, approached a chain letter started circulating on the Internet claiming that on Aug. 27 Mars would be closer to the earth than it had been in 60,000 years and it would look as large as the moon to the naked eye (no mention of the 75 power telescope).
Again in 2005, 2006 and 2007, this same chain letter reappeared. So, any time now, astronomers and planetarians around the world are braced for this chain letter to rise once again from the ashes of astronomical misinformation.
