Nevermind. I believe everything I see on the interwebs.

[wonner]

Check it out, guess no one will get much sleep in August.



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.

Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN !!!

[Scapegoat]

mars will NOT look like the full moon to the naked eye.

this **** goes around every year that on a specific date mars will be visible and be the size of the moon... it won't happen...

[wonner]

Are you an astronomer, Scapegoat?

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by wonner

Are you an astronomer, Scapegoat?

no, but i did very well in astronomy class...

http://www.universetoday.com/2007/07...ugust-27-nope/

mars can not possibly show up as the size of the moon to the naked eye...

look at this image:



mars isn't much larger than our moon... about twice the diameter... its not a large planet. maybe if jupiter was 34million miles away it would appear the size of our moon

need more proof?

the sun is 92 million miles away and appears to be the size of the moon...

and that ****er is larger than anything else in our solar system by faaaaar

http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/solarwee...ON/howbig.html

[wonner]

You are correct. Pardon my ignorance.

http://www.snopes.com/science/astronomy/brightmars.asp

[Elliott18t]

even jupiter shows up as a dot in the sky.

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by wonner

You are correct.

never forget this

i had to debunk this last year and i'm sure i'll have to do it again next year.

mars will be brighter than usual however.

and the funny thing is, this hoax keeps popping up every year around the same time because every year... around the same time... mars and earth get this close

[R_Rambo]

fail.............it would be pretty cool if that was true though

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by Elliott18t

even jupiter shows up as a dot in the sky.

yes, but if it was only 34 million miles away it would be significantly larger... its closest approach was "893 million kilometers" or roughly 558,125,000 miles.

so at only 34 million miles... well, we'd probably get pretty ****ed up in its gravitational pull lol

i need to retake astronomy and finish it... i was doing very well with it and all the math... but i had to stop going to work on a side project. :-/

[Elliott18t]

Originally Posted by Scapegoat

yes, but if it was only 34 million miles away it would be significantly larger... its closest approach was "893 million kilometers" or roughly 558,125,000 miles.

so at only 34 million miles... well, we'd probably get pretty ****ed up in its gravitational pull lol

i need to retake astronomy and finish it... i was doing very well with it and all the math... but i had to stop going to work on a side project. :-/

yes, I know its significantly farther away; at the same time its also significantly larger..

Jupiter (71,492 ± 4 km [radius])/mars (3,396.2 ± 0.1 km [radius]) = ~2100% larger..

If they where same distance, jupiter would be HUGE lol.. at its current distance its already third brightest compared to venus and the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

[doug]

Ill keep this open due to you guys bringing up some good info/good convo.

[wonner]

Originally Posted by doug

Ill keep this open due to you guys bringing up some good info/good convo.

Thanks for prolonging my embarrassment.

[215ek]

it would be really cool to see it that close. worldwide things kinda suck tho, cause you cant like tell anyone hey guess what i saw! soooo did everyone else on the planet lol
maybe mars will crash into us in Dec 2012 and THATS why were all gonna die then supposedly.=O

[ndubz]

Its still gonna be hella bright though. should be cool

[TROLL]

Whats that sentence we learned in school to remember the order of the planets? I cant remember...

M V E M J S N P

[Scapegoat]

P is no longer a planet... poor P...

[TROLL]

Ooh I forgot about that... more info for those interested here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...to-planet.html

""There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."

"According to the new definition, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood."

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by TROLL

Ooh I forgot about that... more info for those interested here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...to-planet.html

""There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."

"According to the new definition, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood."

yeah, there are tons more objects out "around" pluto's area that are the same thing as pluto... if we were to keep pluto as a planet, then by that we would be required to include the hundreds or thousands of those other objects as planets as well

[TROLL]

"My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas."

Except, without the word Pizzas... hmm.

[Scapegoat]

did someone say...

very eager mother?