"Mars spectacular" event on August 27 a hoax, say astronomers.Byline: ANI Washington, August 27 (ANI): Astronomers have confirmed that an email promising a "Mars spectacular" event on August 27, when the Red Planet will look as large as the full moon, is nothing but a hoax. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report in National Geographic News, the anonymous message from an unknown part of the globe says that the red planet "will look as large as the full moon" in the night sky, and that "no one alive today will ever see this again." The claim has been bombarding Bombarding is the process of 'pumping' a Cold Cathode Lighting tube (otherwise called Neon Signs). Information A detailed process of bombarding can be found here, Bombarding. people's inboxes worldwide every summer for five years. Today, the Mars hoax has grown into a kind of cyber legend-one that astronomers are still struggling to debunk de·bunk tr.v. de·bunked, de·bunk·ing, de·bunks To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of: debunk a supposed miracle drug. . "The possibility of seeing Mars as large as the moon strikes the imagination," said Marc Jobin, staff astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium The Montreal Planetarium — formerly known as the Dow Planetarium — is a public planetarium located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. History The planetarium was inaugurated on April 1, 1966 by then-Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau. in Quebec. "The sad reality is that a lot of people have little comprehension of astronomy and are unable to call the hoax," he added. But, there is a thread of truth that inspired the prank several years ago. Planets are not on perfectly circular orbits, and during their elliptical el·lip·tic or el·lip·ti·cal adj. 1. Of, relating to, or having the shape of an ellipse. 2. Containing or characterized by ellipsis. 3. a. paths around the sun, planets can vary in their exact distances to each other over time. On August 27, 2003, Mars made a historically tight approach to Earth, coming about 56 million kilometers away. Such a near pass hadn't happened in nearly 60,000 years, and it won't happen again until August 28, 2287. In 2003, planetariums had sent out notices alerting stargazers of the real astronomical event. "At the time, through the telescope, Mars looked as large as the full moon would with the naked eye," explained Geza Gyuk, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago, Illinois was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere and is the oldest in existence today.[1] in Chicago, Illinois. Through a backyard telescope with a high-power eyepiece Eyepiece A lens or optical system which offers to the eye the image originating from another system (the objective), at a suitable viewing distance. The image can be virtual. , viewers could even make out many surface features on Mars's disk. With the naked eye, Mars still appeared as nothing more than a brilliant orange-colored star in the sky. Still, an email hoax was born. If the red planet actually did appear as huge as purported in the Mars hoax email, the planet would be just 750,000 kilometers from Earth, or about twice as far away as the moon. According to Jobin, at that distance, life on Earth would likely be doomed. Given the interplay of gravity between the planets and the sun, a much closer Mars "would have extreme consequences on the shape of the Earth's orbit, with our planet swinging much closer and much farther away from the sun," he said. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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