Every August, an email makes the rounds claiming that Mars will
loom just as large in the night sky on Aug. 27 as the full moon.
If you hoped to spot a big red orb in the heavens tonight,
you'll be disappointed: The email is a hoax. The yearly
recirculation of the phony information has earned Aug. 27 the
nickname " Mars Hoax Day." The hoax, which has fooled countless
people since it first originated in 2003, may have begun in
innocence. That year, the email message (of unknown origin)
correctly stated that Mars and Earth would converge for their
closest encounter in around 60,000 years on Aug. 27. The
distance between the planets contracted to 34.6 million miles
(55.7 million kilometers) on that date, a mere fraction of their
average separation of 140 million miles (225 million km) and,
indeed, the closest to here Mars has come since 57,617 B.C.
Space news from NBCNews.com Teen's space mission fueled by
social media Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: "Astronaut Abby"
is at the controls of a social-media machin