NOT MARS SPECTACULAR, MARS INACCURATE!

Here's a clarification on the post before last titled MARS SPECTACULAR which proves you can't believe everything you read on emails.

Mars coming closer, but not closest The Times-Standard

An e-mail is circulating alerting readers that Mars will be closer to Earth than it has ever been in recorded history. True. But that happened Aug. 27, 2003, when Mars came to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth. That record is expected to be broken, but not until 2287. In the meantime, stargazers can look forward to Oct. 30 when Mars will pass to within 43 million miles of Earth, compared to an average distance of about 140 million miles. With that in mind, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on Wednesday. Because it takes more than six months to reach Mars, NASA says the best time to start the trip is a month or so before closest approach. NASA says that by the end of October, when Earth and Mars are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. To get an idea of how fast Earth is racing toward the red planet, NASA gave the following on its website: “By the time you finish reading this sentence, you’ll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars.” NASA adds: “Earth is racing toward Mars at a speed of 23,500 mph, which means the red planet is getting bigger and brighter by the minute. In October, when the two planets are closest together, Mars will outshine everything in the night sky except Venus and the Moon. (You’re another 50 miles closer: keep reading!)” NASA explained the close encounter: ”It’s simple orbital mechanics. Think of Earth and Mars as two runners on a circular race track, with lanes corresponding to planetary orbits. Earth, running fast on the inside lane, circles the course in 12 months. Mars, plodding along an outside lane, takes twice as long to go around. Every two years, approximately, Earth catches Mars from behind and laps it.”

Here's the source link back to the newspaper article for your reference:

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_2925880

So there you go. This comes from a newspaper so it must be reliable since newspapers always get it right. Riiiiiiight. (There I go flippantly thowing in a universal statement again where it don't belong!)