“It’s only wafffferrrr-thin…”

Headline: AFP science writer grasps ineffectually at rhetorical straws.

This image captured by NASA’s Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope shows Mars when it was approximately 43 million miles (68 million km) from Earth. On Sunday, October 30, the Red Planet will be 69.4 million kilometers (43.1 million miles) from Earth — a distance that in galactic terms is less than wafer-thin and will not be equalled until 2018.