The Astronomical Society of Malta said yesterday that an email claiming that today the planet Mars will appear as large as the full moon is a hoax.

Mars made its closest ever approach to Earth on 27 August 2003. It has never looked as large as the full moon and it never will. At the moment, Mars is moving further away and it will lie directly on the other side of the sun on 27 October.

Whenever Mars reaches opposition – once every two years, eg 2003 and 2005 – it still looks like a “reddish star”, said the Astronomical Society.

The society said that it had already warned of the hoax some weeks back, but felt it had to do so again as the hoax itself was now reaching global proportions.