Planet Mars [Images] will come within 88.17 million kilometres of the earth -- a close distance -- on December 18 and not on August 27 as is being circulated on the Internet and in no way will the red plant appear as large as the Moon.

M P Birla Planetarium Director D P Duari said on Tuesday that there is no reason to believe that Mars will look as large as the Moon and there was no basis for Internet reports that it will come closest to the earth in recorded history on August 27.

Duari said Mars will rise on the eastern horizon on August 27 at 11:20 pm in the Kolkata sky and will be overhead at 6:00 am.

He said the brightness of the planet was hardly mentionable to be anything near spectacular.

Mars had come within 55.758 million km, the closest to the earth, on August 23, 2003, he said.