PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2003-07-24 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Is a 'Mars Spectacular' Coming Soon? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Some things never go out of style, and the annual Mars Spectacular message announcing an evening when Mars will appear as big as the moon in the sky is one of them. It's yet another example of a widely-circulated e-mail containing information that was once at least partly true but which continues to be forwarded around year after year in embellished form, long after whatever valid information it once contained has become outdated: Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth 17 years ago, culminating on 27 August 2003, when the red planet came within 35 million miles (or 56 million kilometers) of Earth, its nearest approach to us in almost 60,000 years. At that time, Mars appeared approximately 6 times larger and 85 times brighter in the sky than it ordinarily does. (One version of the message was often reproduced with an unfortunate line break, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would look as large as the full moon to the naked eye without realizing that that statement only applied to those viewing Mars through a telescope with 75-power magnification.) Although Mars' proximity to Earth in August 2003 (referred to as a perihelic opposition) was a rare occurrence, the red planet comes almost as near to us every 15 to 17 years. To the unaided observer, Mars' appearance in August 2003 wasn't significantly larger or brighter than it is during those much more common intervals of closeness. Mars had another close encounter with Earth in 2005, but that occurrence took place in October (not August), and the red planet appeared about 20% smaller than it did during similar circumstances in 2003. Mars also made a close approach to Earth in December 2007, but even then it was still about 55 million miles away from us, not nearly as close as it was in 2003 or 2005. The closest encounter between Mars and Earth since 2003 occurred on 27 July 2018, when the orbits of the two planets brought them to within 35.8 million miles of each other. Astronomers predicted Mars would appear twice as bright as usual around that time (though it was certainly not expected to rival the brightness or size of the full moon). The 2003 opposition will hang onto the record for the closest approach of Mars to Earth until 2287, when it is estimated the planets will be separated by 34.6 million miles. Texas astronomer Torvald Hessel observed the following in a 2006 interview about the perennial Mars Spectacular message: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum also noted in 2010 that: The web site of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) provides a chart displaying data about Mars Oppositions (past, present, and future), and the web site of the Hubble Heritage Project offers some nice composite telescope images from previous Mars near oppositions. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url