Two Moons in 2010 is a Hoax

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - For the seventh year in a row, NASA said, people will be staying up Friday night to see if Mars appears as big as a full moon.

E-mails have been circulating recently saying Mars will approach Earth and make it appear as though there are two moons in the sky.

"NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN," the e-mail says.

NASA's explanation?

"News flash: It's not true."

On Aug. 27, Mars will be about 314 million kilometers (about 195 million miles) away, "about as far as it can get." The planet will shine in the western sky after sunset and appear to be a tiny red star.

The space agency said if people didn't know it was there they probably wouldn't even notice it.

People shouldn't necessarily be disappointed. "If Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's orbit and raise terrible tides," NASA said.

The origin of the "two moon" hoax can be traced back to Aug. 27, 2003, when Mars came within 56 million kilometers (about 35 million miles) away and appeared to be unusually big. Snopes.com said that's the closest it has been in almost 60,000 years.

Snopes said Mars does come almost as near to the Earth every 15 to 17 years, but without magnification it wouldn't appear significantly larger or brighter than during other times when it is close.

The EarthSky website said Mars was substantially brighter on Jan. 27 when it came the closest to the Earth that it's been this year. It "doubled up" with the Moon on Jan. 29, but its diameter was still only 1/140th the diameter of the full Moon.

As far as the next time it will be as close or closer to the Earth as it was in 2003, Snopes said it would be 2287.