Comments on: Mars attacks again, again

By: icemith

icemith — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:56:54 +0000

Navneeth Says: …Mars would be around 35 miles from Earth!…

He was quoting his mother’s relation’s comment, and I believe they both did not realise exactly what was said.

They did get part of the distance right – the ’35′ bit – unfortunately didn’t say the ‘million’ bit. Thirty-five million miles is actually the closest approach to Earth, I seem to remember from my school days. I believe our blogger friend would have put them right.

A case of a little knowledge not fully understood. At least somebody was interested. I’m surprised nobody mentioned how the little (?) mistake could have happened.

Ivan.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:24:55 +0000

My 10 year old daughter’s school was teaching this crap. They sent her home a week ago ranting and raving about a mars video they watched. I tried to explain to her that it was not possible, but….well, she’s ten. I can’t believe a teacher fell for this.

By: LibrarySupportStaff.Org » Blog Archive » Yes, Mars is bigger than the Moon, but…

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:56:36 +0000

[...] Nasa ; UniverseToday ; Bad Astronomy [...]

By: Miss Nari

Miss Nari — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:07:14 +0000

This is a scary thought. The moon’s gravitational pull already causes the rise and fall of tides. And Mars getting REALLY REALLY close to earth and looking as big as the full moon? Give me a break. Mars that far is impossible to come too close to earth. Even if it were, just imagine what the tides would be like. Mars’ strong gravity would not just cause high tides, it would probably create TSUNAMIS and TIDAL WAVES! And there’s even a funny line at the bottom of the e-mail I received, “No one alive today is ever going to see this again”. Now that’s a kicker, because if this were true, you and I and the rest of the billion species would probably not live to see the next sunrise. And no one alive today is ever going to receive this superly-exaggerated e-mail again.

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 05:45:05 +0000

What I find interesting is b.s. travels quicker than fact. Let’s see I released an email saying Mars will appear at a whopping 3″ of arc and isn’t all the easy to see right now it wouldn’t get forwarded at all!

Nice image that’s a candidate for the forward button.

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:54:33 +0000

That image is very, very cool. I’ve been searching around for it online and haven’t found it. Where did you get it? The closest I could find are these nice pix:

http://www.andrewchaikin.com/CoolStuff.htm
http://www.guidescope.net/solarsys/moon_mars2.htm

Clearly the photo is from the same occultation (July 17, 2003), but the resolution and color on teh BA Blog are impressively sharp and good. Very good. Almost TOO good… The quality and color of Mars reminds me of a lot of the Mars images from Hubble, so that also makes me suspicious.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:57:24 +0000

Argh!
I’ve already been asked if my astronomy club was going to have a Mars viewing event later this month. I gently referred the guy asking to one of the many websites describing what wasn’t going to happen. *Sigh*

Tom

By: Deacon Barry

Deacon Barry — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:56:31 +0000

“I can squish Mars between my finger and thumb.”

I krrruschhh your planet! (Kids in the Hall)

By: George

George — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 03:05:26 +0000

Looking at Mars, one will see an object the size of the Moon – it’s the sun!

Wonderous image, BA, thanks.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:57:04 +0000

That’s the “Mars Illusion”. See, if you’re standing on the Moon, Mars looks a lot bigger near the horizon but later appears tiny overhead because….(just kidding.)