The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

[Ed007Toronto]

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in
an encounter that will culminate in the closest
approach between the two planets in recorded history.
The next time Mars may come this close is in
2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on
Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
75-power magnification...

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked
eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August
it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its
azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are
closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty
convenient to see something that no human being has
seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
month.


Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

 

[rbtaylor]

I'm afraid you already missed it. Notice that a year is not included in that message.

 

[BuildTO]

This is a bit of an internet hoax. I received it in July and again in August from a Mexican contact.

Like many hoaxes, there is a bit of truth to it. The part about the closest approach is true, although it was nowhere near as big as the moon. It looked like any other speck in the sky although it was noticeably more red than usual.

It actually occurred in 2003.

 

[MetroMan1000]

.. yeah, I thought I had heard this years ago. It was in fact in 2003.

 

[bizorky]

Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked
eye.

Considering Mars is slightly larger than the moon but with a lower albedo, it would have to be almost as close as the moon to be as bright.

And this, of course, never happened.

 

[Chuck100]

The astronomy is wrong. The moon is 1800 arcseconds in diamater, which means that in order appear as large as the moon, the diameter of Mars would have to subtend 1800 arcseconds as well. 25 arcseconds is appropriate, as is a magnitude of -2.9, assuming Mars appeared much larger and brighter than normal.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Chuck:

They're talking about the gravitational perturbations by Jupiter - I would not want to envision the scenario that would lead to Mars turning up in our backyard.

AoD

 

[bizorky]

Hey, that'd be cool! But then it would have to be a big back yard.

Then again, with the potentially new classification for planets, a snowball in orbit could be considered as a "planet."

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

bizorky:

The 12 planet classification scheme is just crazy. Like honestly, if it is big enough to be "round", or bodies with barycentre outside the primary t hat can do the same? WTF?! Personally I prefer the 8 planets one. Pluto isn't a planet, it's one of the largest member of the Kuiper-Edgeworth Belt. Like Ceres of the Asteroid Belt. Case closed.

But I am not a member of the IAU now, am I?

AoD

 

[bizorky]

^Alvin:

All this time I had thought that people were waiting for Clyde Tombaugh to pass away before Pluto was taken off the list of planets. Now it seems all bets are off with respect to what can be a planet. I agree with you, the 12 planet classification is crazy. I wonder if next someone will come up with a taxonomy for planet species to make sense of it all.

Alas, I am not a member of the IAU either.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

bizorky:

Putting Xena in there isn't that horrid. But Ceres? Charon?!!

I wonder if next someone will come up with a taxonomy for planet species to make sense of it all.

Actually in a way that already exist, and would prove convenient. Like terrestrial planets, gas giants, the asteriod belt, KB belt, etc. At least it'd make sense at some level.

You think that's bad? Wait till they start to get some real data on the exoplanets.

AoD

 

[bizorky]

Alvin,

I was serious about the taxonomy, but only to a degree. Every category would have a gray zone of sorts, and there would possibly be a debate about where a given planet (gas giant, rocky, with atmosphere, etc., and all their permutations) ought to belong. However, it would be much better than concerns about the status of a snowball orbitting a moon of a planet - a world that used to be THE planet - before all objects of a specific type became planets, regardless if they were once moons or snowballs.

On the other hand, the people who name planets must be thrilled beyond description.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Pluto got demoted! From space.com

BREAKING NEWS: Pluto Demoted, No Longer a Planet
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 24 August 2006
09:35 am ET

Capping years of intense debate, astronomers resolved today to demote Pluto in a wholesale redefinition of planethood that is a victory of scientific reasoning over historic and cultural influences.

Pluto is no longer a planet.

"Pluto is dead," said Caltech researcher Mike Brown, who spoke with reporters via a teleconference while monitoring the vote. The decision also means a Pluto-sized object that Brown discovered will not be called a planet. "Pluto is not a planet. There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."

The decision establishes three main categories of objects in our solar system.

* Planets: The eight worlds from Mercury to Neptune.
* Dwarf Planets: Pluto and any other round object that "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite."
* Small Solar System Bodies: All other objects orbiting the Sun.

Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects.

"Pluto is a dwarf planet by the ... definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects," states the approved resolution.

Dwarf planets are not planets under the definition, however.

"There will be hundreds of dwarf planets," Brown predicted. He has already found dozens that fit the category.

Contentious logic

The vote by members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) came after eight days of contentious debate that involved four separate proposals at the group's meeting in Prague. Members held up yellow cards, which were counted by hand in what was a close vote.

The initial proposal, hammered out by a group of seven astronomers, historians and authors, attempted to preserve Pluto as a planet but was widely criticized for diluting the meaning of the word.

The category of "dwarf planet" is expected to include dozens of round objects already discovered beyond Neptune. Ultimately, hundreds will probably be found, astronomers say.

The word "planet" originally described wanderers of the sky that moved against the relatively fixed background of star. Pluto, discovered in 1930, was at first thought to be larger than it is. It has an eccentric orbit that crosses the path of Neptune and also takes it well above and below the main plane of the solar system.

Recent discoveries of other round, icy object in Pluto's realm have led most astronomers to agree that the diminutive world should never have been termed a planet.

Astronomers have argued since the late 1990s, however, on whether to demote Pluto. Public support for Pluto has weighed heavily on the debate. Today's vote comes after a two-year effort by the IAU to develop a definition. An initial committee of astronomers failed for a year to do so, leading to the formation of the second committee whose proposed definition was then redefined for today's vote.

Astronomers at the IAU meeting debated the proposals right up to the moment of the vote.

Editor's Note: This article will be updated later this morning.

AoD

 

[BuildTO]

When I was teaching Grade 1, I used to do an astronomy unit. I used to teach the kids the mnemonic to memorize the order of the planets. Who's going to change it, and what are they going to change it to?

My very earnest Mother just served us... nothing.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

If I'm never gonna call SkyDome 'Rogers Centre,' there's no way to hell I'm gonna stop calling Pluto a planet. I hope they nyx the change.