Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Mars close encounter internet myth or ...

There are a lot of stories circulating on the internet about a close encounter with mars on the 27th August. Well they are not true, the earth does come close to the orbit of mars on 30th October (if 69 million kilometers is considered close) and it will be visiable to the naked eye, but it already is. The really bright start after sunset at the moment in the western sky is venus and mars is the dimmer reddish star above it. The bright star close to the full moon is jupiter.

Find out more about this "real" photo at the NASA mars-mythbuster site

The planets Mars, Venus & Jupiter can have a slight affect on tides. However the largest effect would have been at the last new moon when all three, the sun and moon where in close alignment and the effect was apparently minimal!

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