There have been rumors circulating that cosmic rays from Mars are entering Earth tonight so we need to switch off our phones, or put them away from us.

Here is the text I received from a friend of mine:

Tonight 12:30 am to 3:30 am cosmo rays entering earth from mars. So switch off your mobile at night. Don’t keep your cell with you & put it away while you are sleeping because they are too much dangerous rays: NASA informs BBC NEWS. Pls spread this news.


The message above is clearly nothing more than just another HOAX . I don’t know why people are circulating panic messages such as this to disturb the lives of other people. From what I have noticed, this message has been circulating since 2008 and it suddenly reappeared today, 15 august 2012. I also received text messages containing this false information and saw similar Facebook posts.
I did my own research and I have found no credible reports that confirm the claims in the warning message.

There are no references to such a threat listed on credible scientific websites. I also checked the NASA and BBC news today to see if they have posted something like this. Fortunately, both have never said such a thing and will never probably produce a similar baseless statement.
Despite the claim in the message, there are several reasons to say that this information is untrue.

First, Mars could not emit harmful radiation because it is not a star. Cosmic rays are emitted by stars. i.e bodies that are undergoing nuclear reactions that is fusion (as occurs in our sun) or fission (as occurs in nuclear reactors). Mars is neither. It is a planet that just reflects sunlight. It cannot emit cosmic radiation.

Next, with regards to these rays the earth’s atmosphere is capable of taking care of them so no need to worry. The magnetosphere absorbs and protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. Whatever remains is too feeble to affect any thing as far as earth.
The Earth’s magnetosphere prevents most of the particles from the Sun, carried in the solar wind, from hitting the Earth.

Another thing is that we are actually hit by cosmic rays every day — all day (and night too). If it was going to hurt your cell, then it would have already fried it by now.
Sometimes magnetic storms on the sun will fry the electronics of satellites in orbit, and may also blow out the power grid in high latitudes near the Earth’s magnetic poles, but other than static, I don’t see what it might do to your cell phones.
So, to anyone who will receive this kind of message, please think it over and help educate others.


Spreading dubious and unsubstantiated warnings such as this is counter productive and is unlikely to help anyone.

I GOT A SIMILAR TEXT TO AND I ALSO DID MY OWN SEARCH.BOTH BBC AND NASA WEBSITES DON'T HAVE THIS MESSAGE POSTED.OWING TO THE FACT THAT THIS IS A VERY CRUCIAL INFORMATION,THEY WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY POSTED IT ON THEIR WEBSITES.THIS IS A FULL GROWN RUMOUR AND SOMEBODY IS SOMEWHERE LAUGHING HIMSELF TO DEATH,HOW HE HAS PUT FEAR IN PEOPLES MIND.FOR ME SHA,MY PHONE IS ON

quite ryt

DON'T MIND D FOOL CIRCULATING D ILL-MESSAGE, I ALREADY DISPUTED THAT" B/4 CHECKING BBC. 4 ME, MY PHONE IS ON!!!

Don't mind the fool circulating this rumour. I received it first in my 200 level in school and also two more times after that. I'm through with service now and i still see nothing about it on bbc or cnn news. A deluded entity started this and if we look into it very well, we will find out that its started by a jobless youth who sees no future for himself whatsoever.

Its so pathetic that in dis 21st century someone can still play on d intelligence of majority of Nigerians or do i say take advantage of our level of ignorance,well dis is a lesson though

wen i saw d msg i ignored it cos i new it ws false.and it has so spread all over d country.4 me my phone is on nd am even expectin 9t cal soon.

I wonder if it is netwok operators dat generate such msg. not lest than 4million of such msg are bein sent. they make their money form dat. dat is a maketing strategy. i tink so