An email has been circulating around the internet, saying that a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon is going to happen Friday night, August 27th.

According to the message, Mars will only be 56 million kilometers away from the Earth, making it appear like our planet has two moons.

But astronomers say this is not true.

David Lane from Halifax’s Saint Mary’s University astronomy department said, “It’s totally made up.”

This hoax has been going around for years. In 2003, when Mars was really 56 million kilometers away from our planet, the closest distance ever between the two, the event that the email describes never really happened.

According to experts, “If the red planet really was close enough to appear the same size as the moon, the tides would be affected and large tracts of land would be submerged.”

What we will see Friday night is a planet Mars that is “no brighter than an average star.”

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