It was 20 years ago today that Mars and Earth got as close to each other as they had been at any point in about 60,000 years.

The two planets came within about 34,646,000 miles of each other on August 27, 2003. The last time they had been that close was back on September 24, 57617BC, when the distance between them was a mere 34,622,000 miles.

But that period in 2003 was also when the Mars hoax email first began to circulate.

READ MORE: Scientists reveal best people to send to colonise Mars and how many would have to go

Unlike some hoaxes, it was a harmless claim, but it’s a hoax that keeps coming round again.

The email that went viral said Mars would look as large as the full Moon to the naked eye.

It’s thought that the misinformation began to circulate after an innocent reinterpretation of an email that had been written about the event.

Experts agree that most of the contents of that original mail were correct. (Only the claim that the close encounter might not happen again for another 60,000 years was wrong, as the next occasion will be in 2287.)

But the email also included a sentence that said: “At a modest 75-power magnification, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.”

Some people misinterpreted that because they didn’t pay attention to the first part of the sentence. What it actually meant was that if you magnified Mars by the power of 75 when it’s at its nearest point, only then would it appear to be the same size as the Moon.

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In fact, if people spreading this false info stopped to think about it for a moment, they’d realise just how ridiculous it is to suggest that Mars would ever appear to be as large as a full Moon.

After all, to us it’s just a dot in the sky – even when it’s at its nearest point to Earth – and you don’t need to be a geeky boffin to know that.

But that hasn’t stopped the email rearing its head every couple of years or so when the Earth and Mars get a bit nearer to each other – and no doubt it will keep doing so.

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