Mars Hoax

‘NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN’

Earth Mars size comparison Image: wikimedia.org

(NASA) - For the seventh year in a row, the Mars Hoax is infecting email boxes around the world. Passed from one reader to another, the message states that on August 27th Mars will approach Earth and swell to the size of a full Moon. "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN," the email declares -- always in caps.

The hoax began in 2003 when on August 27th Mars came within 56 million km of Earth the nearest it has been in 60,000 years.

At that time a simple 75x zoom would make Mars appear as big as a full moon. Soon emails began spreading with this info and many forgot to include the zoom requirements. Future emails also dropped the year of the event.

It has continued to repeat in August ever since even though Mars is still hard to spot unless you know what you are looking for.

science.nasa.gov : The Mutating Mars Hoax.

Top Signs the e-mail you received may be a Hoax

• Its in all CAPS
• The to address contains hundress of email addresses
• It warns you if you of consequences for not continuing to forward.
• If you Google it and the results are full of hoax warnings.

Even though articles by news and NASA continue to debunk this myth it continues seven years later.

Related hoax terms: Two Moons, two moons august 27, two moons, two moons hoax, double moon august 27, august 27 two moons