Mars Closest to Earth on 27 August, Looks Like Second Moon: Fact Check

Story:

On August 27th… Mars will Appear as large as a Second full Moon in sky.
And finally, “No one alive today will ever see this again.”

Other Versions

1. Warning!

August 27 at 00:30 Lift up your eyes and look up at the night sky. On this night, the planet Mars will pass just 34.65 million miles from the earth. To the naked eye it looks like two of the moon above the ground! The next time Mars will be so close to the Earth as much as in 2287.

Share the news with your friends, because no one living on this earth has ever seen!

2. 12:30 Aug 27th you will see two moons in the sky, but only one will be the moon. The other will be Mars. It won’t happen again until 2287. No one alive today has ever witnessed this happening.

Picture about Mars Coming Close to Earth on 27th August, Will Look Like Second Moon — Mars Coming Close to Earth on 27th August, Will Look Like Second Moon

Fact Check:

Various messages in circulation from years claim the Red planet Mars will come so close to Earth on coming 27th August that to a naked human eye, it will look like a Second Moon in sky. They also mention it is once in a lifetime chance to view the amazing phenomenon. Not really!

Mars Closest to Earth in August?

These messages originally refer to a similar incident that occurred back on 27th August 2003. The day recorded the distance between the Red planet Mars and Earth as 55,758,000 kilometers. It was the closest distance between them since 24 September 57,617 BC, when it was about 55,718,000 kilometers. Millions of people watched Mars appear like a big star in sky. In image below, you can see astronomer Dennis Mammana of California pointing out Mars to onlookers on 26th August 2003.

Will It Look Like Second Moon?

Ever since that occurrence, these messages have been circulating in various versions and appear almost every year. The distance of Moon from Earth is just about 384,400 kilometers, so Mars can no way look like a second moon in sky. However, on 30th October 2005 again, Mars came closer to Earth at distance of about 25% greater than what it was in 2003 (69 million kilometers). What occurred in 2003 will happen again in the year 2287.

The distance between Earth and Mars varies on time basis, as they both travel along elliptical orbits that are not synchronized, because of their different speeds. According to Space.com, the minimum distance from the Earth to Mars is about 54.6 million kilometers, while the maximum when they are apart can be about 401 million kilometers.

To conclude, the above claims are hoaxes, Mars is not coming closest to Earth on 27th August 2013, and no, it cannot look like a second moon in the sky. The picture that comes with the story is most certainly a Photoshop creation.