Mars Closes In

[IMI]

We all know of the effects the moon has on things like tides. I believe this is in reaction to the Moon's gravity, right?

 

With Mars getting so close to us in the next few days, might it's close (relative I know) proximity cause some of the same effects the moon does? I know it is still much farthre off, but it is much larger than the moon.

[greg1917]

The effect will be negligble. The mass of Mars may be greater than that of the moon, but gravitational force varies as the distance between the point sources squared. Its far, far, far too far away to do anything to the tides.

[Kedas]

Moon:

Max. Distance: 406 700KM

Mass: 0.0123 times earth

 

Mars:

Min. Distance: 55 760 000KM

(137 times distance Moon)

Mass: 0.1074 times earth

(8.7 times Mass Moon)

 

So I guess the effect will be 137*137/8.7 times smaller.

Less than 0.05% of the effect of the moon.

[Kedas]

found some numbers here but they aren't the same as mine.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_030818.html

 

I think the reason they are different is because they compared a cycle/tide of the planet I only compared the difference in force at one moment.

(Although I don't think this will cover the big difference)

 

Can anyone else explain the difference ?

You can also just say NASA is wrong