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Update! Mars in August 2009? - No Way!
It's just the annual return of the Mars Hoax
Updated June, 2009
Have you received a "Mars in August" email this month? If you did receive it, perhaps that's why you are here. If you are ever in doubt or suspicious about some amazing information in a forwarded email check out Snopes.com , a source for facts about urban legends and other suspicious forwarded email claims. That "Mars in August" email is a recycled email from 2003 when Mars was closer to Earth but still looked like a bright star in the sky. It never looked anything bigger than a bright reddish star, and certainly did not look as big as the moon.

If you get up early you can see Mars in the pre-dawn sky this month. Look low in the East for the two planets. Venus and Mars will appear near each other through July 2009.

Here's a good link for celestial highlights for the current week. And my own monthly NASA podcast What's Up offers up some great viewing tips each month. The June 2009 podcast features the great Hercules Globular cluster, also known as M13!

This Hubble image depicts Mars in its orbit around the sun, showing the apparent relative size of the red planet at opposition for the last several oppositions. 2010's closest distance between Earth and Mars will be 62 million miles in January 2010. Look at the 1995 and 1997 images to get an idea what the apparent size of the planet will be then.

Here are some good Mars links.

Sketches and images of Mars 2001-2007

Missions to Mars

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created by Jane Houston Jones
Index last updated: June 19, 2009