Will Mars Appear As Big As The Moon?

In a word, no. Let me say that again: NO.

Every summer since 2003, an email has been circulating which claims that on the night of August 27th Mars will appear as big as the full moon. Of course, even the email itself admits, albeit in tiny print, that this will only be the case if Mars is view at 75-power magnification.

The truth is that in 2003, Mars and Earth were closer in their orbits than they had been in a long time, or will be in something like 60,000 years. That said, the difference between Mars' appearance in 2003 and, say, 2005 was extremely negligible.

The good new? You can see Mars tonight in the night sky! In fact, if you time it right and the skies cooperate, you'll see Mercury, Saturn, Venus and Mars all once in the western sky at dusk. They'll all be gone by about 10 PM, so don't dally! (Oh, but also don't worry if it's overcast tonight; these planets will be all be visible together for the next week or so.)

Note: Even though you won't see the moon in those spots, since we're past those dates, you'll still the planets lined up like this through the end of the month. No telescope needed, so I don't want to hear any excuses!

Methane on Mars

Maybe Marvin the Martian is a cow.
NASA held a press conference today to announce that data from orbiting spacecraft picked shows plumes of methane on Mars. Not just a singular event, but various plume events over the last 5 years.
Before you go and get all ALH 84001-style excited about life on Mars, please remember that methane can be produced both biologically and geologically. For example, both bovine digestive processes and volcanic processes create methane on Earth. No one is sure where the methane on Mars is coming from. However, the fact that plumes have been seen over this extended period of time leads planetary geologists to think there is some sort of active process on Mars they had not considered before.
So the long and the short of the story is that there is no direct evidence of life on Mars, no matter what the crazies tell you. Instead, just another answer that just leads to more questions. Oh, how I love science!

Follow this link to a video from NASA about these results.

More MER Anniversary Fun

Got this in my inbox today:

The Mars Exploration Rover team invites you all to watch the rovers' fifth anniversary celebration programming that will be broadcast from JPL on January 15. You are welcome to share this information with anyone you know...

Mars Exploration Rover fans:
Tune in to the public channel on NASA TV on Thursday, January 15 at 3:00 PM PST (6:00 PM EST) for a special live broadcast from JPL celebrating the twin rovers' 5th anniversary.

JPL will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Mars Exploration Rover mission with a program scheduled to include former CNN chief technology and environment correspondent Miles O'Brien on Thursday, Jan. 15 from 3 to 4 p.m. PST.

O¹Brien will give the event¹s keynote address following remarks by JPL Director Charles Elachi, Project Manager John Callas and Principal Investigator Steve Squyres. The presentation will also include video highlights and guest commentary on the rover mission.

To watch the show online, go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public .

Edible Mars Rovers

As I mentioned, this is the month when we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the landing of the Mars Exploration Rovers on the Red Planet. In honor of this occasion, I've got a fun activity you can try. This is good for kids 3 and up (younger if you are really adventurous) and has been enjoyed by many adults as well. You can read one of many lesson plans at this link, or get adventurous and Google it yourself for lots of variations.

Ingredients (per rover):

• 3 graham crackers
• 1 roll of Smarties
• 6 Nilla-style wafer cookies
• 3 big marshmallows
• 1 snack-size Kit Kat
• 2 snack-size peppermint patties
• 1 straw (preferably bendy)
• 1 knife
• 6 Rolos (wrapped individually if possible)
• Toothpicks
• 8 gumdrops
• Frosting
• Damp washcloth standing by

Directions:
Assemble the above ingredients to form something that looks like a robot. The frosting makes a good glue to hold all your constituent parts together. Remember that wrappers are just as important as the candies in them, especially the shiny ones. You can spend as much time as you like discussing what instruments you've created (maybe the bendy straw is the Rock Abrasion Tool or a Nilla wrapped in the Rolo foil is the high-gain antenna). You can keep the grahams whole or break them up. I like to keep one whole and then break one up into the little rectangles and use two of these as the solar panels. In case you aren't completely familiar with the Mars Exploration Rovers and their many parts, here's a diagram (click on it for larger image):

For healthier rovers:
Feel free to use alternate ingredients. You can use cream cheese as the glue, carrot wheels, celery sticks, banana slices, pretzel sticks, you name it. I personally prefer the candy one, but I would not intentionally allow my child to ingest that much sugar, so I won't tell you to either.

Photo credit Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Happy Birthday!

[Insert sound of party blower here.] Today marks the 5th anniversary of the successful landing of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on the surface of the Red Planet. The other rover, Opportunity, landed on January 24th, 2004. More on this later in the month, but for now, here's a reminder of what happened five years ago.