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Every twelvemonth in August , the same Mars subject matter circulates across the Internet : The Red Planet will seem " as big as the full Sun Myung Moon " in the sky , as seen with the naked centre . The problem is , it ’s not lawful : Skywatchers wo n’t be capable to see a " double moon " in the late August sky .
Theso - call Mars Hoax(which started in 2003 after a real - living close approach shot of Mars to the Earth ) is just one of a serial of false claim concerning the Red Planet .
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped this shot of Mars on Aug. 26, 2003, when the Red Planet was 34.7 million miles from Earth. The picture was taken just 11 hours before Mars made its closest approach to us in 60,000 years.
Here are some misconceptions about Mars that just wo n’t die . [ Seeing thing On Mars : A History of Martian Illusions ]
1 . Mars as big as the full moon
The culprit for this fraud was an unsigned email suggest the great unwashed how to observe Mars during the major planet ’s historically close approach to Earth in August 2003,said Space.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao . reader plain missed the line saying that it would take a 75 - power exaggeration in a telescope to make Mars look as swelled as the full moon .
The original “Face on Mars” image taken by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter, in grey scale, on 19 March 2025. Image shows a remnant massif located in the Cydonia region.
2 . " Face " on Mars
This hoax arose from a picture taken in 1976 byNASA ’s Viking 1 orbital ballistic capsule of a rocky outcrop in the Cydonia region of Mars . The coming into court of what looks like a face ( created by spark and shadow ) sparked discussions that it could have been some remnant of an ancient civilization . The " face on Mars " idea endure even past 1998 , when NASA and theEuropean Space Agencybegan takingmore moving picture with higher - resolving camerasto show that the facelike shape on the satellite ’s surface was a coincidence .
3 . adult female on Mars
Once seen, it cannot be unseen. The “Mars rat” captured by Curiosity’s lens.
In 2007 , NASA ’s Spirit rover enamour a picture ofwhat come out to be a human figure(perhaps a cleaning woman ) far in the space . The orphic photo unhorse up several Internet meeting place as user had hopes of confirming life on another planet . But astronomers quickly pointed out that the human shape is in reality just a stone that is only a few inch gamey , but positioned very close to the camera . Plus , homo ca n’t breathe on Mars . [ Why Do We Believe in Mars Hoaxes ? ]
4 . Iguana on Mars
In 2013 , confederacy site report a " creature " spot in a photo captured by the Curiosity rover : an iguana . Butas The Huffington Post pointed outat the time , the iguana , rat and other animals recognize in photos from the Red Planet have yet to be shown to be anything but oddly shaped rocks .
5 . Rat on Mars ?
UFO buffs zero in on a share of a panoramic photograph hold by NASA ’s Curiosity rover in September 2012 . These viewers tell apart an objective thatlooked like a rat lying between two rock . While it ’s a creative idea , the " Mars rat " is improbable , scientist have said . The Red Planet has highly cold temperature , is bake in radiation and lacks a thick , protective ambience like Earth ’s , making it an extremely hostile surroundings for lifetime .
6 . Life - bearing organic fertilizer on Mars
Based on a vague quotation from the Curiosity rover ’s chief scientist , rumors swirl in recent 2012that Curiosity detect complex constitutive compounds ( organics contain C , which can be a building pulley of animation ) . But it turned out that the rover ’s organic findings were not complex organic compounds , and it was ill-defined to scientists if the carbon in them had originated on Earth and were fetch to the Red Planet , or if they were truly Martian . Interestingly enough , cogent evidence of more - complex figure of organicswere in fact found , in 2014 .
