Mars has been an object of human fascination since its discovery, from the Roman god of war to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, the planet’s similarities to Earth gives it a special place in the celestial pantheon.

"When you put it in the perspective of, Mars may have had life at some point, or Mars is this complete other world that we've sent spacecraft to, maybe the idea that Mars will be as big as the moon doesn't sound so crazy," Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute and the University of Washington, told Live Science.

The hoax actually does have its origins in actual science, well kind of. In 2003, Mars and Earth actually did have quite a close visit, astronomically speaking of course. On Aug. 27 of that year, Mars was less than 35 million miles away, which was the closest the two planets have pulled together in 60,000 years.

Apparently, some over-eager amateur scientist heard this fact, and, with a few choice misunderstandings and a hefty use of the forward button, the hoax spread into inboxes across the country.

Some people have made the argument that if you follow the Mars hoax to the letter, namely using a backyard telescope to magnify the view 75 times, that it does look the same size as the moon.

But even with the extra telescopic help, it simply won't work.

The hoax also got a bit of a revival in 2005, when Earth and Mars again had a close encounter, prompting another NASA public information blitz.

As technology has evolved, so have the ways that the Mars hoax has spread. More recently, Facebook and Twitter have become the preferred medium for perpetuating the myth. In this year’s edition, a doctored photo showing two moon-size objects over some temple-like structure is providing an illustration for the hoax.