Some of you may have recently received an email claiming that on August 27th (year conspicuously absent), "Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history".

I received it from a reputable source but being the general skeptic that I am, further research was in order.

Here's what I found on the NASA website regarding this issue.
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Martian Misinformation 08.25.2006
August 25, 2006: On Sunday, August 27th, Mars will be far from Earth, dim and unremarkable. In short, a total bore.

That's news? It is when a widely-read email claims just the opposite. Perhaps you've seen it:

"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."

"On August 27th … Mars will look as large as the full moon."

"NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."

This is called the "Mars Hoax" and, as the name suggests, it is false.

If Mars ever came close enough to Earth to rival the Moon, it would alter Earth's orbit and raise fantastic tides. Impossible: The orbits of Earth and Mars are too far apart. In fact, this month Mars is about as far from Earth as it can get: 385 million km, all the way on the other side of the Solar System.

The Hoax first appeared in 2003. On August 27th of that year, Mars really did come historically close to Earth: 56 million km. But even then the e-mail's claim that Mars would rival the Moon was grossly exaggerated. To the unaided eye, Mars looked like a bright red star, nothing more. In every August since 2003, the email has staged a revival.

Meanwhile, Mars is a bore. Spread the word.

http://science.nasa.gov/h...rshoax.htm
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More info...

Some things never go out of style, and this "Mars Spectacular" message may be one of them.

It's yet another example of a widely-circulated e-mail containing information that was once true but which continues to be forwarded around year after year, long after the information it contains has become outdated.

Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth several 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. (The message quoted above was often reproduced with an unfortunate line break in the middle of the third sentence of the second paragraph, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would "look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" and not realizing that the statement only applied to those viewing Mars through a telescope with 75-power magnification.)

http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp
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tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 8/12/07 10:43am]