FWD: OMG WORLD ENDING TONIGHT BECAUSE OF DOUBLE MOON!!?!

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No.

Aug. 27 is the date of a purportedly rare celestial phenomenon, the “double moons” event where Mars is supposed to loom as large as a second moon in the Earth’s night sky. Not only would this be a spectacle, the gravitational effect supposedly portend a host of environmental disasters that will End. Life. As We Know It.

The problem? Both parts of this are completely bogus. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Mars remains some 195 million miles from us, far too far away to appear as much more than its typical pinpoint of light in the night sky, much less to provoke any cataclysm on Earth. This isn’t even the closest the two planets have been — in 2003, Mars and Earth were separated by just 34.6 million miles. Life here continued unabated.

If your friend e-mails you this “helpful” heads up of impending doom, e-mail them back the definition of the word “gullible.”