can the planet mars be called a moon? - re: the sighting of 2 moons on 27 august 2008

Mars is defined as a planet, not a moon. Mars orbits the sun,while moons are natural satellites of planets. The "close" approaches of Mars were august 2003 and last year, August, 2007. However, close in space terms isn't really close.

"Close is a relative term. At its closest, Mars is still tens of millions of miles away from Earth. Still, the decreased distance during "closest approach" allows for fuel-conserving flights to Mars every 26 months and a good view of Mars once or twice every 15 to 17 years for Earth-bound sky watchers.

The distance to Mars varies from about 56 million kilometers (about 35 million miles) to 400 million kilometers (about 249 million miles)."

"On August 27, 2003, at 9:51 a.m. Universal Time (5:51 a.m. EDT), the fourth planet from the Sun was closer to the third planet from the Sun than it had been in 59,619 years.

As the two major Solar System bodies orbited our star on that date, Mars was a mere 34.65 million miles from Earth. To be exact, the distance was:

34,646,418 miles

55,758,006 kilometers

At any rate, modern astronomers say Mars will not make a closer visit to Earth until August 28, 2287, when the Red Planet will be 34,603,170 miles (55,688,405 kilometers) from Earth."

"July 27th, 2006: email hoax

No, Mars Won't Look as Big as the Moon in August

Have you gotten a copy of the email yet? If you haven't, you probably will. Forwarded from a friend, forwarded again and again until the original source is lost in the murky cloud of the Internet, it encourages you to get set for the experience of a lifetime. When MARS WILL LOOK AS LARGE AS THE FULL MOON!!!!! Is this going to happen? No. But there's a strange gem of truth at the heart of this misunderstanding/hoax. I'll give you the history and then everything you need to explain what's going on to your excited but misinformed email forwarding friends.

Turn back the clock to August 2003 for Mars Mania. Astronomers were reporting that Mars would make its closest approach to the Earth in more than 60,000 years. On August 27th, 2003, Mars closed the distance to only 55,758,006 kilometers (34,646,418 miles). Since Mars and the Earth both orbit the Sun, the distance between them grows and shrinks. The most distant they get is 400 million km (250 million miles).

If those sound like meaningless numbers, lets put them in context. The Moon orbits the Earth at about 385,000 km (240,000 miles). Mars can range between 144 and 1041 times as far away as the Moon. In other words, even at this closest point back in August 2003, Mars was relatively close for Earth-Mars standards, but still 144 times further away than the Moon."

No, sorry, this will NOT happen. This silly story about Mars being so close that it will appear to be a second moon is an internet hoax that seems to resurface every year about this time.

The last closest pass was in 2003. At that point, Mars was at the closest conjunction with the Earth that anyone could see for soemthing like the next 15,000 years. But even so, it was still just a small orange dot to the naked eye. Mars will not be so close as to "appear to be a second moon" this month, or ever.

In order to be classified as a moon, the object must be gravitationally bound to the planet of interest, so that it orbits that object.

Mars is gravitationally bound to the Sun, not to the Earth. Mars can be considered a satellite of the Sun -- and all satellites of any star that are larger than a certain cutoff point (as determined by the IAU), are defined as planets.

Comments: The text of this rumor was roughly accurate when it first began circulating in the summer of 2003, outdated when it went around again in 2005, and just plain false when it appeared for the third time in 2006. It is now 2007, and making the email rounds again. How many times can a "once in a lifetime" event occur? The oscillating orbits of Mars and Earth did, in fact, bring the two planets closer together on August 27, 2003 than at any other time during the past 50,000 years. Though Mars never actually appeared "as large as the full moon" -- not even close -- for a few days in 2003 it was indeed the brightest object in the night sky. In October 2005 another well-publicized "close encounter" occurred, though in that case the planets were about 13 million kilometers further apart than during the 2003 event. Nothing so spectacular is predicted for 2007.

No, Mars cannot be called a moon.

A moon is an object that orbits a planet while that planet orbits the Sun. Mars orbits the Sun directly and does not fit the definition of a moon.

By the way, statements that Mars will appear as a second Moon in August are false. This false story started in 2003 when Mars was unusually close to Earth, and IN A SMALL TELESCOPE you could see it as well as you can our moon WITH NO TELESCOPE. Since then this story has been distorted to say Mars will appear as big as the Moon and repeated every summer ever since, even though Mars will not even be close to Earth this August.

By no stretch of the imagination (or philosophy) can the planet Mars be called a moon or satellite of Earth. It is like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune a world in orbit round our parent Sun.

The Earth, however, has had 2 moons for a very long time. Beside the satellite we all call the Moon there is a much smaller one, discovered only recently, which orbits the Earth just a little bit further away.

For some reason, the Astronomy and Science category of Yahoo answers seems to attract an unfair share of kooks, cranks and generally very ill-informed people. It is bad enough these people asking really stupid questions, but even worse when they use their muddled and very often stupid ideas to answer what might be a genuine question, thus totally confusing the asker. This is unfortunate because there are some very intelligent and informed people around to answer the good questions.

What we don’t want are:

1. Moon landing hoax questions (the moon landings are as historically factual as World War II)

2, Is the world going to end any time soon? (as if 4 .5 billion years of surviving everything the cosmos can chuck at it isn’t enough for these ignoramouses)

3. Are there aliens amongst us? (Before the space age it was fairies and goblins)

4. Will Mars appear as big as the moon this August (probably one of the greatest examples of the general ignorance about space in the general public).

The solution is that everyone who reads or hears anything about space that does not come from a scientific source, should go research what they want to ask before making complete idiots of themselves, or confusing those who really want to learn about the most awesome subject. There’s a great many good sites on the internet – NASA’s site for all things about space travel, and Wikipedia for any subject. Real science is at your fingerstips – nowdays, you don’t have to troop down to the local library.

If you are referring to The last sign of Qayamat (Day of Judegement)

I do not think it says 2 moons - I am fairly sure its says that the Sun will rise from the west on earth. (I will have to open up a copy of Qur'an)

"the 50 signs of Judgement"

What you are reading or have read is the 2 MOON HOAX that shows up every year stating that due to position and weather etc etc Mars will appear as big as the moon in the sky.

No. Your beliefs aside, it is to large and to far away it doesn't orbit the planet earth. I understand the importance of it to you but the only way mars could be considered a moon of earth is if it left its orbit and became a satellite of earth.

i'm quite sure that the definition of a moon is a satellite that specifically orbits an object. As the mars is a satellite orbiting the SUN, not the earth, it cannot be considered a moon.

the second moon of the earth won't be visible for several (perhaps hundreds) millions of years. so you'll have to wait long for "the day of judgement". you religious people certainly are in a hurry.

and no, mars is not a moon. planets orbit stars, moons orbit planets.