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Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth

amazon10x writes "Mars will come unusually close to the Earth on Saturday; the second time in 60,000 years. The last occurrence was in 2003. 'This is the best we're going to see Mars, so we should strike the iron while it is hot,' said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine. The Red Planet will be 43.1 million miles from Earth at 11:25pm [Eastern time]." Update by J : Starting a few hours after sunset, look fairly high in the eastern sky.

7 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Hunker Down by chkMINUS · · Score: 4, Funny

    With all the natural disasters lately, I'm stocking up on food and water in case it hits.

  2. Re:Wow. by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given advances in technology by that point, it should make a great time to put men on Mars.

    How long will we have to wait intil we're advanced enough to put women there as well?

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  3. Re:Time zone? by Jaruzel · · Score: 4, Funny

    So that's 3:25am UTC Sunday morning?

    Great - The UK (and many other countries) flip back to GMT\UTC Sunday morning, so now my head hurts trying to work out when I have to set my alarm so I can get up, get get dressed, go outside, and stand disapointedly staring at a cloud covered sky :(

    -Jar.

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  4. Re:Time Zone by squoozer · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is obviously a Martian invasion plan. First they submit a story to /. that doesn't contain the timezone which confuses us a bit. Then they choose a time zone that plenty of people don't know (judging by the other comments). Then, and this is the one that really convinced me it's an invasion, they make sure that the conversion from the given timezone to to the ones used in Europe is as difficult as possible (most of Europe switches from daylight savings time to standard time on that night). This is a cunning ploy to keep us on the back foot while they get their ships of death in place. It should be evidence enough for any one.

    To arms, the Martians are coming.

    P.S. There are some dubious looking bumps in the sand on Mars. I think they might be hiding WMDs!

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  5. Doom by MacGod · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is just so the demons can use those teleport pads to beam themselves to Earth. Here's hoping that by the time they arrive, we've figured out how to hold a flashlight AND a gun!

    --
    "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
  6. Re:The Distance... by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 4, Funny

    Couldn't be much more from the heart.

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    WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
  7. Re:In galactic scales... by Aumaden · · Score: 4, Funny

    An it will continue to pass closer and closer until *SPLAT*.

    Haven't you noticed? 5 years ago, it would have been rare to meet 2 dense induhviduals in a week! Now, I usually encounter at least 1 a day. This accumulating density is subtly increasing the Earth's gravitational field. (Yes, yhat's also why your scale keeps going up.)

    I believe reality television is to blame. I eagerly tuned in to the first season of Survivor, thinking "Oh boy! Televised Darwin Awards!" But, wha?? They *vote* people off? The smart people? This isn't "survival of the fittest", it's survival of the weaseliest. (It is so a word, Dilbert says so and that's good enough for me!)

    And weaselness is closly related to denseness. Don't believe me? Take a minute to talk to your upper management. Then another minute to see what they get away with. See!?