Is Mars coming close to Earth?

[GetPhysical]

I just received an email with a powerpoint someone put together. It said that Mars would come within 35,000,000 miles of Earth on August 27th and would appear as large as the Moon. Does anyone have any other information on this? Is it even true?

[tiny-tim]

These emails get circulated every year.

There was a year when Mars came within 35,000,000 miles of Earth on August 27th, but Mars is never more than a point to the naked eye. :rolleyes:

[HallsofIvy]

Mars came within 35,000,000 miles of earth on Aug. 27 of 2003 but, as tiny-tim said, even then it did not show a disk to the human eye.

According to the "Hoax Slayer" website, a lot of people are getting those e-mails!

[berkeman]

I just received an email with a powerpoint someone put together. It said that Mars would come within 35,000,000 miles of Earth on August 27th and would appear as large as the Moon. Does anyone have any other information on this? Is it even true?

Whenever you hear something strange via e-mail or word-of-mouth, Snopes.com is your friend:

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

.

[russ_watters]

I can't believe that one is still making the rounds!