Will Mars appear as big as the moon?

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A chain email making its way to thousands of inboxes says Mars will appear as big as the Moon at 12:30 am on August 27.

The email says, "Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full Moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on August 27 when Mars comes within 34.65 million miles of Earth. Be sure to watch the sky on August 27 12:30 am. It will look like the Earth has two Moons."

NASA said there's no truth to the email. It actually said on its website Mars is about as far away from Earth as it can possibly be. Right now it's 195 million miles away.

IPFW Professor Dipak Chowdhurry told NewsChannel 15 on Thursday, Mars will look like a star in the sky, but it will not look like the Moon.

"You can pick it out in the evening, but it's much less bright than even Venus," said Dipak Chowdhurry, IPFW Professor.

People started sending the chain email in 2003. Mars was 34 million miles from Earth that year, but it was still 75 times smaller than the Moon. That's as close as it's been to Earth in 60,000 years. Every year since thousands of people have gotten the email.

Mars will be visible in the sky during the early hours of Friday morning. Venus is the brighter object in the sky, and Mars is just a few degrees to the right of it.