*Two moons on TODAY!*
*27th August; the day the Whole World is waiting for ......
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65 Million miles of earth.
Be sure to watch the sky TODAY!! It will look like the earth has 2 moons.
The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.
Habari hiyo si ya kweli, its a hoax. This misinformation has been travelling the net for many years. Anybody in doubt can search it through google atajua ukweli.
ReplyDeleteTHE TRUTH
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, a long time ago, (about 60,000 BC) there was a close approach of Mars to Earth of about 34.5 million miles..
Mars did not come that close to Earth again until 27th August 2003. That was worth remarking upon as a memorable occasion and received publicity. These occasions are called perihelic oppositions.
Mars (magnitude -2.9) was marginally brighter than Jupiter (magnitude -2.8) on that date in 2003. However Venus which is both larger than Mars and nearer than Mars is (as you might expect) always brighter than Mars and varies between magnitude -3.8 and - 4.6.
So the statement in the e-mail that Mars is about to become the brightest planet in the night sky is untrue.
The hoaxers do not know much about astronomy. They just sensationalise and distort the limited facts they have managed to pick up without properly understanding them or their implications.
As Venus has never been seen as large as the Moon and Venus is always brighter than Mars, it follows that Mars will not be seen to be as large as the Moon not on 27th August nor at any other time.
The naive belief that it "could be" that large this time just reveals the hoaxers' lack of understanding of how the Sun's gravity keeps the planets in stable orbits, which means the extent to which they vary in their positions is calculable and predictable.
Humanity has been studying and predicting the planets and their orbits for 4,000 years and writing their findings up in almanacs and now suddenly someone comes along and declares "an unexpected dramatic change in a stable orbit is about to occur", wlthout explaining why that should be so. And expects to be believed!?
So the hoaxers do not understand that planetary orbits have been observed and carefully calculated and predicted for 4,000 years now. The hoaxers, in contrast, seem to be suggesting that planets behave unpredictably and chaotically without any pattern or sense to that behaviour, and further, that they the hoaxers, like the Delphic Oracle of old, have unique divination powers and are passing on their knowledge, to which they alone are privy, to lucky old you.
Whereas all they are in fact passing on is misinformation based on their own ignorance.
Mars, even at its nearest in 2003, was 140 times as far away as the Moon, and it is only twice its size (Equatorial radius of Mars = 3,402.5 km. Equatorial radius of the Moon = 1,738.14 km.).
So how could an object that is twice the size of the Moon but at least 140 times as far away (more like 220 times as far away in December 2007 when it will be 55 million miles away) ever look as big as the Moon? Does a tomato one eighth of a mile away look as big as a cherry held at arm's length?
The only way Mars could ever appear as large as the Moon is if it were to get as close as half a million miles away,
If it did do that, it would be a disaster, causing huge tidal waves on Earth and tsunamai such as we have not seen the like of before. It would not be a thing to gawp at, and say "Oh wow! Awesome!" and tell all your friends to look out for it at 12.30 am !
But of course it won't do that (come within half a million miles of Earth) as Mars has a stable orbit. And therefore. if it cannot come that close to us, it cannot appear as big as the Moon, can it?
The hoaxers have sent out the same e-mail every summer as regards 27 August 2004, 27 August 2005, 27 August 2006 and now 27 August 2007. Again revealing their ignorance of how the Solar System works. Mars has a year that equals 1.88 Earth years and as a result only comes close to us once every 26 months: on 27th August 2003, and then not again until 30th October 2005 and then not again until 18th December 2007.
The idea of it having a close approach on the same date every year is nonsense therefore, it is not like a wedding anniversary or a birthday or Mothers' Day, As the hoaxers seem to believe,
If anyone had have craned their necks and looked at the skies at 12.30 am on 27 August 2004 or 27th August 2006, all they would have got for their efforts was a stiff neck. As Mars was on the far side of the Sun on those two occasions (about 220 million miles away, not 34) and nowhere to be seen, as it was hidden behind the Sun's glare.
That is how much the hoaxers know about astronomy. That is how accurate and worthless their predictions are. Nobody should be taken in by their "knowledge" and nobody should copy and spread their e-mail to others so as "to pass on the exciting news" they have just received.
Snopes.com (see link) have a useful article on the hoax.
Source(s):
http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp
MORE.....
ReplyDeletehttp://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/27may_approachingmars.htm
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/3307776.html?page=1&c=y
acha hizo michuzi,mi hadi 2900AD nitakuwa nadunda tu,au vipi?
ReplyDeleteMichuzi, hii siyo 'hoax' kweli??? Nakumbuka ulishawahi kuitoa
ReplyDelete*TWO MOONS ON TODAY!*
ReplyDeleteUjumbe au niite taarifa hiyo nadhani siyo sahihi, tafadhali bofya viunganishi vifuatavyo kwa maelezo zaidi.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070717025545AA9UzAT
au
http://urbanlegends .about.com/ b/a/175663. htm
Kila la kheri,
Ndaga BJ
Hizi habari si za ukweli. Ni email hoax inayosambazwa katika email za watu. Bofya hapa kusoma ukweli yake
ReplyDeleteWaungwana,
ReplyDeleteNaombeni mnisaidie kuhusu swala hili la sayari ya Mars, Maana time zinanichanganya, wengine wanasema ni tarehe 27 August 2007 saa 12:30am (saa sita na nusu usiku yaani tarehe 26 August kuamkia tarehe 27 August) na wengine wanasema tarehe 28 August saa sita usiku.(27 August kuamkia 28 August) na wengine wanasema saa 9:15pm (saa tatu usiku tarehe 27 August).
Sasa time(masaa) yananichanganya sielewi. Naombeni mnieleweshe ni saa ngapi ya tarehe ngapi. Manake wakisema 27 August saa sita usiku ina maana tarehe inapobadilika usiku, imeshapita.
Kama nimepitwa, NAOMBENI SANA msinicheke ila mniombee kwa Mungu nifike huo mwaka 2200 ili niweze kuona mie na watoto na wajukuu na vitukuu vyangu. KUULIZA SI UJINGA. Naombeni mniambie, mimi niko London
Mungu Awabariki Sana.
KAKA MICHU NIMEKUKUBALI NA MAHABARI YA KUVUNJIKA KAMA HAYO.KWELI BLOG YAKO IPO JUU.KWA STAILI HII KUNA UWEZEKANA MKUBWA UKAPATA ATA HABARI ZA KIAMA MAPEMA NA KUTULETEA MA BRIKINGI NYUZI.INGAWA KABARI HUKU FINLAND NDIO KANAANZA ILA LEO PIGA UA MPAKA MZALENDO NA MIMI NISHUHUDIE LIVE
ReplyDeleteKaka Michuzi that is a Hoax!
ReplyDeleteMwaka juzi walitudanganya hivyohivyo nikashinda macho/nje usiku kucha mpaka kunapambazuka hakukuwa na lolote.
Labda kama ni mpaka mtu uwe na BAINOKULAS
Huu ni uwongo!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLook at the facts:
In August 2003, Astronomers were reporting that Mars would make its closest approach to the Earth in more than 60,000 years. On August 27th, 2003, Mars closed the distance to only 55,758,006 kilometers (34,646,418 miles). Since Mars and the Earth both orbit the Sun, the distance between them grows and shrinks. The most distant they get is 400 million km (250 million miles).
If those sound like meaningless numbers, lets put them in context. The Moon orbits the Earth at about 385,000 km (240,000 miles). Mars can range between 144 and 1041 times as far away as the Moon. In other words, even at this closest point back in August 2003, Mars was relatively close for Earth-Mars standards, but still 144 times further away than the Moon.
Haloo Michuzi hii habari ya mwezi imekuwa ikisambazwa kila mwaka tokea 2003 kama sikosei. Yaani ni 'hoax'.
ReplyDeleteIla kesho mwezi utapatwa (total lunar eclipse) na tarehe 31 August tunategemea 'meteor shower' ya aina pekee. Nenda http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070823/sc_space/2000yearoldmeteorstoraindownonaugust312007
kwa tabia yako PEREZ huwezi kuona kitu wewe.Labda uone CCM tu.
ReplyDeleteThank you for keeping me up all night long, expecting to see the moons. I now feel so disgusted of myself for falling for this hoax.
ReplyDeleteIlikua total lunal eclipse. Total lunar eclipse august 2007
ReplyDeleteAnon wa August 28, 2007 6:07:00 P.M EAT, mwenzangu kumbe tulikesha wote....USIJALI....ILA WASHINDWE NA WALEGEE WALIOTULAZA MACHO!!!!
ReplyDelete