Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Nefarious on August 08, 2005, 06:43:47 PM
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My new boss got an email today saying this month and next, peaking on August 27th, Mars will grow as bright as the Full Moon and from the email she got it says it will be as big. Sounds pretty legit saying it wont happen until 2287, or possibly even longer due to Jupiters Gravity pulling Mars. It will be the first time in recorded history it will happen.
Is this BS? Checked out Spaceweather.com and it didnt say anything would be spectacular would be going on.
But when I read it, I was flabbergasted, If Mars is going to be as big as the Moon in the night sky, Man thats wild. But is it true?
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...the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one...
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http://www.kyw1060.com/news_archives_detail.cfm?newsitemid=48248
N/M. just found something on it. FALSE!
Its some kind of internet Mailing from 2003, that is still circulating LOL!!!
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Mars makes the same orbit every 3 years or so its as close, not as claimed in the e-mail every thousand years or so.
It will never be as bright or as large at the moon (I hope not as that would be bad very bad).
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Yup pretty freaky saying "marsrise and marsset" may makes the tides flip out from being that close
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No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty first century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us...
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Your talking about the US Govt, right?
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no, you clueless, uneducated unread dolt.. That's HG Wells, from 'War of the Worlds'.
*sigh*
;)
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DOH! I should of known that, I seen the old version of the movie before
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Mars is getting closer and will soon be the brightest object in the sky next to Venus and the moon. It will be the brightest on October 30.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/27may_approachingmars.htm
My wife got the same e-mail and it took me a while to convince her is was a hoax.
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That same stupid e-mail made the front page of our local paper. Perfect definition of a slow news week.
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If it's close enough we can poke it with blunt instruments of pain, i'm in. Otherwise my eyes won't be wandering the skies.
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I remember back in the mid/late 70's when then planets were scheduled to line up.
All the doomsayers with there the gravity will tear the Earth apart, tidal waves etc.
Yup, if Mars ever gets as big as the Moon I think we may have a wee problem.
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mars' orbit is ~1.5 that of the earth. Since its light is actually reflected sunlight the intensity reaching its surface is ~2.25 times smaller that the solar light on earth/moon.
Mars' diameter is about twice the moon: 6800 km vs 3500 km. therefor it's crosssection area is 4 times that of the moon.
If we neglect all reflective effects (practically assuming a flat coin shaped mars and moon) and assume similar reflective coefficient then mars emitts 4/2.25 = 1.8 times more light than the moon.
But the moon is closer to the earth: 384,400 km, while mars at the closest point is about half earth's orbit (astronomical unit) from earth: 149,600,000 / 2 km = 75,000,000 km.
Which means mars is at least 195 (~200) times farther than the moon, so the flux of light comming to earth from mars will be
1.8/200 = 0.009, that of the moon.
In practice, we spatially resolve the moon by eye so the moon's flux does not appear to be comming from a point source but spread over an area. This will lower the moon brightness by a few factors.
Still, this means that mars eye observed brightness is of order of a few times 1% of the moon. It will never outshine the full moon.
Bozon
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http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/08.21/13-marsbash.html
Dated 2003
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Continue to focus on Mars.
Do not approach Europa. Make no landing there.
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Originally posted by Kev367th
I remember back in the mid/late 70's when then planets were scheduled to line up.
All the doomsayers with there the gravity will tear the Earth apart, tidal waves etc.
Yup, if Mars ever gets as big as the Moon I think we may have a wee problem.
i remember that day. i was in eighth grade, the day before some guy moved the clock forward, when the teacher was gone, ten minutes so class would be over early. the day all the planets lined up the clock dropped off the wall and shattered everybody about **** themselves.
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LOL...as soon as I finished reading all of the posts, a friend mentioned that Mars was going to be as big as the moon this month. Guess this email is spreading fast.
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Originally posted by Holden McGroin
Continue to focus on Mars.
Do not approach Europa. Make no landing there.
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there.
Use them together, use them in peace.
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All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there.
Use them together, use them in peace.
You're too early. Try again in 5 years please :)