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Amateur Astronomers Club rubbishes theory on Mars

Special Correspondent

E-mails are doing rounds that Mars will appear bigger today

MANGALORE: Will planet Mars look like Moon on August 27, 2006? This was the question on the minds of several thousands of netizens of Mangalore and elsewhere for the last fortnight or so. For they have been getting e-mails from their friends and relatives asking them to look at the night sky on August 27 and find Mars appearing bigger and brighter.

The Amateur Astronomers Club of the St. Agnes College headed by H. Jayantha has rubbished the theory saying that it was the work of some mischievous elements. Prof. Jayantha told The Hindu that many were enquiring about the visibility of Mars on August 27. "There is also a rumour that it will appear like full Moon," he said.

The explanation

Based on the observations of the night sky, Mars will appear on the western sky close to the horizon immediately after sunset, in the evening.

This clearly indicates that planets Earth and Mars are on the opposite sides of Sun, in their respective paths, which shows that, the size of planet Mars on this day as visible from Earth will be smaller than usual. The most favourable position of Mars appearing bigger than usual in the immediate past was on August 27, 2003, because both the planets were on the same side of Sun and close to each other on their paths. These planets come close to each other once in two years. The last such appearance was on November 7, 2005 and next is on December 24, 2007, he said.

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