It all started in 2003, writes Jeff Brush on SouthburyPatch.And here is the full story behind this.The distance between Earth and Mars varies dramatically over time. The maximum distance (when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun) is about 250 million miles, and the minimum distance (Earth and Mars on the same side of the Sun, with Earth at its farthest distance from the Sun and Mars at its closest distance, is 33 million miles.
As a result, the apparent size of Mars does vary quite a bit, from a mere speck when seen through a typical telescope, to a small disk. When Mars is at its closest approach, the disk shows some level of detail of the surface of the planet, including large canyons and mountain ranges, though typically still quite blurry when viewed by eye through an amateur's telescope.
Mars comes within [approximately] 50 million miles of Earth once every 18 months or so. Because the orbit of Mars is more elliptical than Earth's orbit, it does occasionally get within 35 million miles, and the time between such closer approaches is measured in thousands of years.
The last closest approach occured on August 27, 2003 at 12:30 a.m. A couple months before that closest approach, a PowerPoint presentation posted on the Internet discussed the event. It is mentioned therein that the next time Mars will be this close to Earth is in the year 2287, and, in big bold letters, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN".
As a result, every July and August since 2003, we see a recurrence of these emails or other Internet message types, carrying the same message. Will anyone live up to see this once-in-a-lifetime event? Mars isn't even visible in our nighttime sky this year (or in most of the years since 2003), concludes Brush.
To read more about this hoax, click here.
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