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We were talking today at a breakfast about the celestial gift of the month, that Mars will make a once-in-our-lifetime appearance close to earth. I heard about this a few weeks ago and thought, man, that's so cool! There was absolutely no reason not to believe it.
And then something triggered in my memory--didn't this already happen a few years ago? I seem to remember hearing about this event of the century very recently. Am I already 134 years old?
Then I started hearing variations of the story--that Mars would be so close it would actually look like we had two moons! What? Absolutely amazing. [Were there two moons in Planet of the Apes? I could be completely wrong about it, but sounds like it would be a good fit.]
Get ready with your fishin' pole, Hubbie! The tides will be high and the catchin' good.
I'm a big fan of Snopes.com. I love being able to shoot on over there and find out if something is a total crock of doodoo, a partial deception, or actually (and more rarely) true. Here's what Snopes.com has to say about this hoax:
"Some things never go out of style, and the 'Mars Spectacular' is one of them."To paraphrase the whole thing, Mars did come very close to Earth in 2003, but it happens every 15-17 years. And during that time, Mars did appear as large as the moon--if you were using a telescope with a 75 power magnification. Nice one.
So when in doubt, check it out. I always learn something interesting and then take a moment to peak at the top 25 urban legends to arm myself for the next forwarded e-mail.
P.S. In Planet of the Apes, there is no moon. I looked it up. But I didn't find that one on Snopes. Or on NASA's website. Man, they've got to get it togethaaa.
7 comments:
Hey, you're up LATE. So am I. Or early. Whichever.
Yes, that Mars thing makes me laugh. If it were true, the gravitational forces would cause enormous tides which would destroy all life within hundreds of miles of the coasts. And it would cause lots of volcanic activity. Silly people.
Mars would burn my coffee!
No moon on Planet of the Apes? But Planet of the Apes is actually Earth. I'm gonna have to re-watch the movie. It upsets me when I can't answer a sci-fi trivia question.
I hate it when I get these old things in my email...some of them people actually dredge up and change dates (like about a law enacted a few years ago and then repealed!) just to start things up. Why? Are they that bored. My hubby is notorious for "snoping" and sending replies to the person who sent it. He has much more time on his hands than me, I just delete them! My sister accused him of being a joy sucker because he kept snoping all these feel good emails she was forwarding!
Thank the good Lord for snopes.com!
I totally would have believed there were two moons in Planet. Wouldn't even have headed over to snopes to check it out, but thanks for setting the record straight.
I particularly love getting the panicky emails about some "real" crime that happened recently. Gives me the heebie jeebies. >delete<
Seems like we should have seen the 17 year cicadas by now too....I think that does actually happen every 17 years. Coincidence.
:)
I fell for this one too, I was all excited and then realized it was a hoax. Let. Down. LOL!
Ah well, maybe next year. LOL!
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