Mars hoax scares up searches
Tags: Learning Life News Stargazing
There's an email making the rounds that claims that on the night of August 27 (that's tonight), the planet Mars will appear as large as the moon. Sounds sweet, but hold up. Before you invite your friends over for a rooftop viewing, we have some bad news: It's just a hoax.
Web searches on "mars moon," "two moons," and "huge mars" have all been off the charts over the past several days due to the email. And that's understandable, because the message is quite persuasive. Quotes include: "The Red Planet is about to be spectacular," "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history," and, in all caps, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."There's an email making the rounds that claims that on the night of August 27 (that's tonight), the planet Mars will appear as large as the moon. Sounds sweet, but hold up. Before you invite your friends over for a rooftop viewing, we have some bad news: It's just a hoax.
Web searches on "mars moon," "two moons," and "huge mars" have all been off the charts over the past several days due to the email. And that's understandable, because the message is quite persuasive. Quotes include: "The Red Planet is about to be spectacular," "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history," and, in all caps, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."
So, what's going on here? Why would somebody bother to trick people into wasting their Friday night by staring at the sky? According to a popular article from LiveScience, the email has been going around since 2003, and originally, it wasn't a hoax. SPACE.com explains that the "August 27" referenced in the email actually refers to August 27, 2003. "Mars made a historically close pass by Earth that night (34.6 million miles, or 55.7 million km)." However, even in 2003, Mars didn't look anything like our moon.
Meteorologist Mark Johnson from WEMS wrote a humorous piece on how this hoax "spread, mutates, (and) refuses to die." He goes to explain, that the only way you're going to see Mars look as large as the Moon is if you board a spaceship. Every year, Johnson explains that this is a hoax to his viewers, but every year, he has to do it again. "Years of stories contradicting the hoax have failed to stamp it out," he laments.
Bottom line: The email is lying to you. Go ahead and delete it, because odds are you're gonna get it again next year.
There's an email making the rounds that claims that on the night of August 27 (that's tonight), the planet Mars will appear as large as the moon. Sounds sweet, but hold up. Before you invite your friends over for a rooftop viewing, we have some bad news: It's just a hoax.
Web searches on "mars moon," "two moons," and "huge mars" have all been off the charts over the past several days due to the email. And that's understandable, because the message is quite persuasive. Quotes include: "The Red Planet is about to be spectacular," "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history," and, in all caps, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."There's an email making the rounds that claims that on the night of August 27 (that's tonight), the planet Mars will appear as large as the moon. Sounds sweet, but hold up. Before you invite your friends over for a rooftop viewing, we have some bad news: It's just a hoax.
Web searches on "mars moon," "two moons," and "huge mars" have all been off the charts over the past several days due to the email. And that's understandable, because the message is quite persuasive. Quotes include: "The Red Planet is about to be spectacular," "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history," and, in all caps, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."
So, what's going on here? Why would somebody bother to trick people into wasting their Friday night by staring at the sky? According to a popular article from LiveScience, the email has been going around since 2003, and originally, it wasn't a hoax. SPACE.com explains that the "August 27" referenced in the email actually refers to August 27, 2003. "Mars made a historically close pass by Earth that night (34.6 million miles, or 55.7 million km)." However, even in 2003, Mars didn't look anything like our moon.
Meteorologist Mark Johnson from WEMS wrote a humorous piece on how this hoax "spread, mutates, (and) refuses to die." He goes to explain, that the only way you're going to see Mars look as large as the Moon is if you board a spaceship. Every year, Johnson explains that this is a hoax to his viewers, but every year, he has to do it again. "Years of stories contradicting the hoax have failed to stamp it out," he laments.
Bottom line: The email is lying to you. Go ahead and delete it, because odds are you're gonna get it again next year.
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