Bad Astronomy

Mars. Moon. No.


Cripes. Is it already time for the annual “Mars will be as big as the Moon” email spam?

Yup. Cripes.

Non Sequitur cartoon about Mars and the Moon
I’ve been getting a steady trickle of emails from folks pointing this out to me. If you haven’t seen it yet, you will; it claims that in August Mars will be closer than it has been for thousands of years, and will look as big as the Moon in the sky, yadda yadda yadda.

I tire of debunking this every freaking year, so just read this post from last year, or from 2007, or 2006, or 2005, or 2003, when this evil viral thing got started by someone who I hope is now covered with a copious slathering of honey and ensconced in the ground near a fire ant mound, preferably surrounded by quicksand, a tar pit, and a bunch of TV sets all tuned to the Oprah show.

And I’m glad Non Sequitur gets it. Note the tags on the comic!