A photo and description saying that Mars will be as big as the Moon on Aug. 27, 2014, is an old hoax.
It was created more than 10 years ago.
But this week, the same hoax was being spread across social media websites.
It reads: “August 27 at 00:30 Lift up your eyes and look up at the night sky. On this night, the planet Mars will pass just 34.65 million miles from the earth. To the naked eye it looks like two of the moon above the ground! The next time Mars will be so close to the Earth as much as in 2287.”
NASA debunked the myth back in 2005, and a number of astronomical websites have made similar comments.
EarthSky also talked about the hoax on its website a few days ago.
“I thought we were going to make it through August 2014 without the double moon on August 27 hoax being revived. I was wrong. Google searches have made this post the most popular on our site for two days running. Yes … it’s happening again. An email must be circulating – somewhere, social media must be buzzing – with the suggestion that – on August 27, 2014 – Mars will appear as large as a full moon in Earth’s sky,” writes the website’s Deborah Byrd.
She adds: “Mars can never appear as large as a full moon as seen from Earth. The moon will not be full on August 27, 2014 (you might spot it briefly as a thin crescent in the west after sunset, though). And Mars will not be at its brightest or closest in August of 2014, or at any time in 2014. In 2014, Mars is closest to Earth on April 8, but it won’t be as close this year as in some years.”
