Mars Spectacular

[Nancy Waterman]

Just got this by email, no link.

MARS SPECTACULAR!

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. and 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.

[hippiegranny]

1. does this have any astrological significance?

Isn't Mars the planet of war?

[stellanoir]

2. On a simplistic level

Mars is indeed often seen as the "god of war." But Mars rules the solar plexus, the immune system, the adrenals, and free will and the individuation process. It governs both the fight and/or flight reflex.

Mars is only combative once it senses that it has been grossly violated. That is an aberration.

On a good day, Mars governs the inherent sense that one has something uniquely positive to contribute to the world.

It's proximity to earth may just help to centering us all and exposing the sleaze bucket low lifes. But I'm just a deluded optimist.

[Dover]

3. Nancy, I think that must be an old email. I believe it refers to the 2003

event.

Remember all our anticipation and discussion of the significance of Mar's close proximity to Earth and how the war and violence would heat up? And it WAS spectacular...so BIG and bright in the sky!

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_mars_encounter.htm

[Pallas180]

5. Dover, looks like you're right - just googled & all the Mars close

to earth appears to be 2003. THANK GOODNESS. Another war we don't need!

Sone one's pulling Nancy's astrolabe. :)

[Dover]

6. Happens all the time. Old emails never die!

I've gotten several that I thought were BREAKING NEWS...and sometimes I posted them here at DU only to be informed that I am, in fact, waaaaay behind the curve.

I'm just sorry that whoever sent you that email likely missed the real event.....which was a wonder to behold. No, Mars didn't quite rival the Moon in size and brightness level, but you couldn't miss it. It hung there menacingly beautiful, an ominous and firey red presense....and we will never see that sight again in our lifetimes.

[TankLV]

4. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I was extremely unimpressed with the last "spectacular" planet claim.

Extremely underwhelmed.

Not even as big or noticable as a plane flying by.

Especially when others claimed it would be second only to the moon.

Bull. No way.

Maybe in cosmological terms, but for the average look up in the sky, it's a waste of time, IMO.

Just like looking at the same bunch of stars.

And I was with a bunch of other people who were also really underwhelmed.

I'll believe it when I see it.

As big as the moon.

I'll remember this.

[Desertrose]

7. Thing is - its partially true- we come close to Mars every 2 years

Here is a great NASA link & explanation....

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07jul_marshoax.htm


Beware the Mars Hoax 7.07.2005


Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter--but not as close as some people think.


July 7, 2005: 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 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.

[Ilsa]

8. Here's additional info from Snopes...

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

Claim: The planet Mars will make a once-in-our-lifetimes remarkably close approach to Earth in August.

Status: Multiple:
Mars passed extraordinarily close to Earth in August 2003: True.

Mars will pass extraordinarily close to Earth in August 2005: False.

Mars will pass close to Earth in October 2005: True.

SNIP
Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth which culminated on 27 August 2003, when the red planet came within 35 million miles (or 56 million kilometers) of Earth, its nearest approach to us in almost 60,000 years. At that time, Mars appeared approximately 6 times larger and 85 times brighter in the sky than it does ordinarily. (The message quoted above was often reproduced with an unfortunate line break in the middle of the second sentence of the second paragraph, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would "look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" and not realizing that the statement only applied to those using viewing Mars through a scope with 75-power
magnification.)
SNIP