[South Florida DX Association] Space Weather News for August 6, 2006

[Bill Marx]

Space Weather News for August 6, 2006
http://spaceweather.com

MARS HOAX:  A bogus email is going around the Internet.  It claims that Mars
will be historically close to Earth on August 27, 2006--so close that Mars
will look as large as the full Moon. This is not true. Here are the facts:
On August 27th, Mars will be on the other side of the solar system, about
385 million kilometers from Earth. The red planet will look tiny and dim,
nothing like a full Moon.

The "Mars Hoax" email first appeared in 2003.  On August 27th of that year,
Mars really did come historically close to Earth. But the email's claim that
Mars would rival the Moon was grossly exaggerated. Every August since 2003,
the email has staged a revival.  It's as wrong now as it was then.