Social media abuzz with rumours of Mars being 'as visibly big' as moon

The annual internet forwards of "Do Not Miss Mars closest to the Earth" have forced the director of the Nehru Planetarium, Arvind Paranjpye, to bust them for the hoax that they are.

According to the hoax, Mars will be so close to Earth on Aug 27, that it will not only be visible to the naked eye, but also be as big as the moon.

"People don't check the facts and blindly believe anything that they read on the internet. Even when Mars is closest to Earth, it will be as visible as a cricket ball placed at a distance of 6kms. Besides, this event already occurred in 2003 and will recur only in 2287," said Paranjpye.

The hoax has been repeated every year since 2003 and makes the rounds of the internet through emails, SMSes and now, even WhatsApp forwarded messages.

Paranjpye added, "This year, so many callers called up inquiring about this occurrence, that I was forced to write about it in my blog and debunk this myth."

Paranjpye's blog, titled "Celestial events for viewing pleasure," explains the astro-physics involved with this myth.