August carries this hoax

So when have you last seen the Mars-Earth close approach?? But let me remind you that it is not an annual event such as a birthday or an anniversary that it keeps happening every year! Yes it is a matter of fact that during this august there seems the hoaxers are busy forwarding a message which is just not accepted by the space community!

*Two moons on 27 August*

27th august is what the whole world is waiting for.....

Planet mars will be the brightest in the sky starting august.

It'll look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.This will cultivate on Aug.27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of Earth.Be sure to watch the sky on Aug27 12:30 AM.It will look like the earth has 2 moons.The next time Mars may come this close in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Well.. then that e-mail or an IM must have raised many eye-brows and if you have planned a sky hunt then I am afraid you wont find any spectacular scene. Lemme put some facts regarding this issue just in case you still go with the e-mail. :D

• Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to earth several years ago, culminating on 27th Aug 03, when the Red planet came within 35 Million miles-its nearest approach in 60000 years.
• And it appeared 6 times larger and 85 times brighter than its normally seen.
• But it wasn't as huge as a moon(This was just a wrong interpretation)
• Mars had another close encounter in 2005 but it was in October not August and the Red planet appeared 20% smaller than it did in Aug 03.
• It had made yet another closer approach on December 07 but it was still 55 Million miles away from us .
• Mars has a year that equals 1.88 Earth years and as a result only comes close to us once every 26 months.

So the next time forward a message be sure that u are not following a group of innocents. :P

Further Info

Snopes.com

Yahoo Answers