This is just to fucking cool
Check this shit out..
However, this fact is not quite as earth shattering as you might think. A 2003 NASA article on the subject explains that:
Much has been made of the fact that the August 27th encounter with Mars is the closest in some 60,000 years. Neanderthals were the last to observe Mars so favorably placed. This is true. It's also a bit of hype. Mars and Earth have been almost this close many times in recent history.
And, during 2009, the view of Mars will be far less than "spectacular". During the current mars apparition (period when Mars is visible and well placed for observation from Earth), the planet's closest approach to earth will occur on January 27 2010. On that date, Mars will be over 99 million kilometers from Earth, a lot further from the Earth than it was in 2003, when the distance between the planets was only around 56 million kilometers. Mars expert, Jeffrey D. Beish notes:
Closest approach occurs at 1844 UT on January 27, 2010 (43.8° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 14.11'' at a distance of 0.663989469429 astronomical units (AU) or 61,721, 554 miles (99,331,411 km). During closest approach in 2010 the apparent diameter of Mars will be more nearly 2 arcsec smaller than it was at the same period in 2007 and it will be nearly 5 degrees lower in the
https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pi....ms-powerpoint
