Scientists, astronomers and other "People who know what the Solar System is" are preparing their lips to be bitten for August 27th, when they'll be forced not to scream "OF COURSE NOT, YOU IDIOT!" when asked if Mars is going to ram the Earth.
The only Mars you'll see with the naked eye this month
The "Mars Hoax" is now a tradition, in that it was started by confusion and stupidity, then kept alive by sheer bloody-minded stubbornness. In 2003, an e-mail described the closest approach of Mars to Earth in some time, and proved that working for NASA doesn't necessarily mean you're good at grammar.
"At a modest 75-power magnification, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye," said the e-mail, which tried to mean "Mars in a 75x telescope will look as big as the Moon does to the naked eye without that telescope." Guess which part people misunderstood.
And that's why we're forwarded amazing instructions to watch out for a massive Martian invasion of our skies every year. Despite the fact that if Mars really came that close, we'd get to see the surface, in person, as it crashed into our faces shortly afterwards. Also, we'd have at least a year's warning with Hollywood movie executives crying, "Woohoo, a new disaster we haven't used yet!"
And now the link:
http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-hoax.html
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