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August 26, 2005
earth's "second moon" revisited
mars and earth comes close together once every 26 months. sometimes they come so close together that mars will seem like a little moon, hence - it's as if earth has another moon (i think this is an exaggeration but it's how mars earned the second moon nickname, if you consider how close the closest mars ever got to earth it's nowhere as close as luna is although mars is roughly double the size of our moon).
the closest was in august 27th 2003 - 38 million miles away (luna is 239 miles away). the next time mars and earth will come so close to each other is in 2018. this year, mars will be closing in on november 7th - and will be roughly about 46 million miles away (check wiki for mars appearances)
to the naked eye however, mars won't appear as big as a full moon. it'll appear brighter, that's about it.
there has been emails going around telling people that august 27th 2005 is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see mars so close that it'll appear like earth's second moon and that the next time something like this will occur is year 2013/2287 - it's a hoax, an urban legend, and we will probably be getting the same email annually with the year changed accordingly. another article debunking that email can be read here.
if you're interested about mars' august 27th 2003 appearance read nasa's take on it and skywatch.
if you're interested in the 2005 mars approach to earth during oct & nov, read it here, here and here.
posted by nyx at August 26, 2005 7:26 AM
Comments
This was a hoax..
Posted by: Dhaval at August 28, 2005 8:50 AM
Hah!
Thank you for clarifying =)
Posted by: priya at August 30, 2005 9:12 AM
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