Eyes Full Of Stars

As with the return of the swallows to Capistrano, the evening bat flight at Carlsbad Caverns, and the regularity of the moon’s phases another predictable and recurrent event has permeated the realm of cyberspace. Perhaps you have seen it. It is the annual ‘Mars hoax’ email.

While the email content has several variations, all have a common origin. Following the historic Mars opposition during August 2003 when the red planet came to within 35 million miles of Earth, a chronicle of the event was created and re-packaged with no date. First circulated in the summer of 2004, the oft-titled “Mars Spectacular” email makes several extravagant and inaccurate claims.