Once In a Lifetime…and I missed it.

My mom sent me this notice on email in July. Unfortunately, this stupendous Mars event took place in…2003. Whoops. I didn’t check my sources. My bad. (Although it does sometimes feel like I’ve lost the last three years.) atomic mama set me straight. And she sent me a private email to let me know my mistake, which was very nice. I just thought y’all should know that about her.

That’ll teach me to stick a “fluff” piece on my blog at five o’clock in the evening, thinking it can do bandaid duty for me while I get my next post together. Oh, well.

I decided to leave the post up here just to illustrate the warning I used to give my students: don’t trust what you read on the web. Especially don’t trust the…ahem…assvice of newbie bloggers shamefully on the hunt for audience.

Mars: The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month the Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.