What happened in 2004, 2005 and 2006? What will happen next...?
At the beginning I said that the approaches of Mars occur every 26 months (2 years and 2 months), with periods of more favorable approaches (towards perihelion) and more unfavorable (towards aphelion). Thus, the next Martian opposition occurred in October 2005, so there is not much to say about 2004: Mars did not approach Earth; On the other hand, all oppositions have different characteristics and the one in 2005 was not the same as the one in 2003: the date, departure and completion time, distance, magnitude, etc. varied. The opposition of 2005 was less spectacular, since Mars has already reached its maximum proximity (2003) and from there there will be several less favorable oppositions, until reaching the least favorable one when it is in aphelion and the cycle is repeated. Therefore, compared to 2005: Mars approached Earth, but much less than in 2003.
I mentioned 2004 and 2005 because, unfortunately, the fake PowerPoint did not stop with the opposition of 2003: it resumed its circulation in 2004, 2005, 2006 and then it has continued to circulate and misinform, just by changing the year. This is why I want to stop at the year 2006; Although this year Mars did not approach Earth, I want to show a second parallel regarding how Mars looked in 2006 and how it supposedly will look according to the powerpoint. The objective is to show that now all the data are very wrong (since in addition to being very far away, in August 2006 Mars was impossible to see due to being blocked by the Sun), and will continue to be so in the following oppositions:
Mars in August 2006
| Characteristics | Real data | Powerpoint Data |
| Maximum approach: | There was no approach | August 27th |
| Closest proximity from: | There was no closeness | 5,000 years ago |
| Next similar approach: | There was no approach | Year 2,287/60,000 years from now (contradiction) |
| Cause of approach: | The Earth is practically on the opposite side of Mars in relation to the Sun(!) | Jupiter's gravity affects and disorients Mars orbit |
| Distance from Mars: | 386,100,000 km (as of August 27) | 55,762,696 km |
| «Ranking» of luminosity: | 6th brightest star (as of August 27) | 2nd brightest star |
| Apparent magnitude: | -1.8 (as of August 27) | -2.9 |
| Apparent size: | 3.6 arcseconds (as of August 27) | 25.11 arc seconds |
| Exit: | 11:59 UT (07:59 Chile time) | «With the fall of night» |
| Culmination: | 17:55 UT (13:55 Chile time) | 12:30 am |
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