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Amusing factoid of the day
Aug. 5th, 2003 01:36 pmSo, at the end of this month, Mars will be closer than it has been for 60,000 years.
Pretty impressive, till you discover how much closer than the previous closest distances that is.
It's 110 metres closer than two years ago,
It's 18 centimetres closer than it was in 1924. Yes, that's a mere seven inches. Less than two hands. In over 55 million kilometres.
Correction: As pointed out, that miniscule distance is a scale distance, assuming Mars is actually 528 metres away, not 100 million times further away, and the size of a tennis ball.
BBC report
Sometimes, details like this get missed.
Pretty impressive, till you discover how much closer than the previous closest distances that is.
It's 110 metres closer than two years ago,
It's 18 centimetres closer than it was in 1924. Yes, that's a mere seven inches. Less than two hands. In over 55 million kilometres.
Correction: As pointed out, that miniscule distance is a scale distance, assuming Mars is actually 528 metres away, not 100 million times further away, and the size of a tennis ball.
BBC report
Sometimes, details like this get missed.
