Mars is currently about 360 million kilometers away from the Earth, and even at its closest point - about 60 million kilometers it will not look like the Moon * So why, like every year, does an email go out warning of a once in a lifetime event that will not be and will not be created?
As every year for the last few years, every August, mail boxes began to be bombarded with messages according to which on August 27, Mars will appear as big as the full moon. This is of course complete nonsense. On this date in 2003, the Earth and Mars were indeed closer than at any time in recorded history, but binoculars that magnified 70 times were needed to make Mars look like the Moon, something that was probably omitted during the copying of the letter in its first round.
The email talking about a "once in a lifetime event" has been circulating every August for the past five years and is full of factual errors. (See for example theAn article from last year)
I don't know if the general public is so uneducated in this simple area of knowing the solar system, or maybe they are gullible or in the dark, to the point that many will fall into this trap every year, or maybe those who start distributing the email every year are trying to test how stupid the public is.
The event that started the cycle was the approach of Earth and Mars to a distance of 55,758,006 kilometers. Mars then looks like a bright "star" in the sky, not much more than what happens every two and a half years when they approach a distance of 60 and several million kilometers. Telescope viewing of Mars was slightly better than usual in August 2003, when with a large telescope the ice caps could be seen more clearly, and sometimes some other formations as well. Someone got misinformation and got excited about that misinformation and sent it to all his friends in an email that later took on a life of its own through the miracle of transmission.
Precisely because the event does not happen once every round number of years, and therefore has nothing to do with the date since the date is determined by the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, this year the two planets are 360 million kilometers apart and they are not even close to the closest point. Mars and Earth move in different orbits around the Sun, and each of them takes a different period to orbit it (Earth 365 days, Mars 687 Earth days). The distance between the two planets grows and shrinks, with the closest point being reached in this race once every 26 months. However, even this point is not fixed, and the closest distance is affected by celestial mechanics (as we know, the orbits are not exactly circular).
The only question is what can be done so that next year we don't get a new copy of this wrong email again.
9 תגובות
To:
Try, I will stand strong-> As the firstborn! And the youngest!
Let's burn a witch
To the anonymous..unidentified user
Why this piety? After all, this site called itself, from the beginning, "The Scientist"..for all that it implies,
Why didn't he call himself the "scientist"? So that's it, this is the initial "tzotzik"...
This kettle..that also made you a strange breed of Indian..committed to his words..
Everything is in this tzutzik - the world stands and revolves on it.
And maybe not??..???
Just think about it. - Even on this site you are allowed to think, even more obliged.
Obviously this is nonsense. What I don't understand is why you hesitate to argue
With this nonsense precisely in a world full of nonsense and know-it-alls.
Yes, what exactly is the problem with that?
After all, it happened, is happening and will happen again even if all those who understand the subject explain to those who do not understand.
That's the nature of things.
You have to understand that this is how global communication works, from the gullible to the educated, and vice versa, in all directions,
And talk serves talk..that's how it is.
Ignorance, laziness and an education that is inferior to the backward - and here is the same nonsense for you every year.