News – Watch for it: Mars will be the closest to Earth in over 30 years

In the days leading up to July 31, Mars is going to look bigger and bigger, especially if you use a telescope to watch it, however, look for a persistent hoax that will blow this fact out of proportion.

Every year, it seems, a message goes around by email, Facebook or other social media, with a wild, and completely wrong claim that the planet Mars is going to have it. as big as the moon in our sky.

Normally this post is for the date of August 27, but with the next close pbad of July 31, it seems like the perfect opportunity for hoaxes to resurrect their story and change the date. So, keep an eye out to see if it appears in your social media feed (and maybe send the authors here, in response).

The Pure and Simple Truth Us, the planet Mars has never come to appear as great as the Moon in the heavens of the Earth and it will never be.

The problem with the shared meme is that his message leaves out two really important details :

The actual event happened only in 2003, and it will only do repeat in 2287 and

• Even at these two dates, the only way the Moon and Mars appeared to be the same size is if you look at the Moon at the naked eye, and watch Mars through a telescope . 19659006] How can we be sure that this will not happen?

Well, let's look at the two ways this can happen:

1) The closest Earth and Mars never got close is 54.6 million kilometers. It's about 142 times farther than the moon. So, if Mars were to appear as big as the Moon, from this distance, the planet should be more than three and a half times larger than Jupiter! In reality, Mars is smaller than Earth. So, it's impossible for Mars to appear as big as the Moon, at more than 54 million kilometers.

2) With a diameter of 6,779 km, Mars is just twice the size of the Moon (diameter 3,474 km). So, if you keep Mars the same size (not 3.5x the size of Jupiter), you should move Mars up to twice as far as the Moon, or about 750,000 km from the Earth. However, Mars getting closer to Earth is as impossible as the planet suddenly swells to 72 times its normal size. The Earth and Mars are locked in their respective orbits, reaching only 54.6 million km, due to the persistent gravitational influence of the major players in the solar system – the Sun and Jupiter. Something completely cataclysmic should happen to our solar system for this to change, and since nothing of the sort will happen (at least for billions of years), Mars will keep its distance from us.

There. Either you inflate the size of Mars by an impossible amount, or you move it incredibly close to the Earth, and none of these things will happen. Of course, given its persistence now, this meme of hoaxes will probably still appear, and may even continue to appear until the next time Mars reaches its closest absolute, in 2287 (depending on the fate of the loonie). Internet and Civilization

Also note: Some of the most recent additions to this hoax, especially in 2016, have attempted to add a measure of "doomsday" to meme, since seemingly non-apocalyptic memes do not are more powerful.Mostly from Russian news sites, these statements claimed that the close encounter with Mars had "caused panic in the scientific community", due to a previous meeting closest – in back in the year 57,617 BC – supposedly caused "changes in the earth's crust and climatic disasters."

This is also false, because Mars can not have this kind of fect on Earth to more than 50 million km. While Earth and Mars exert gravitational forces on each other, these forces become very tiny, very quickly as you move away. They are so small at a distance of 56 million km that they have no noticeable impact on the tectonics or climate of the Earth. Quite simply, if the crust and atmosphere of the Earth could be significantly influenced by such tiny forces, the Universe itself would never have been able to sustain itself. It would be so fragile that it just could not exist. Since the universe exists and we exist to experience it, there is no way for the meme or any of its apocalyptic additions to be true.

The best things to do for the approach of Mars Opposition, and the end of March is approaching shortly thereafter, is to keep an eye on the weather, to make sure you have clear skies , organize to acquire binoculars or a telescope, or see what kind of stars can occur in your area or around that night, so that you can not only experience this close pbad, but also share the Experience with other skywatching enthusiasts. Even if no opportunity is available, go out and see Mars. It will be visible, shining in the night sky, even from the urban areas most heavily polluted by light.

Sources: NASA | FSNA | NASA | With files from The Weather Network

Look below: For science! – Breaking the scientific hoaxes