Planets Viewed From Earth as if They Were at the Distance of the Moon [Video]
This amazing video shows how the planets of the solar system would look if viewed from Earth as if they were orbiting around our planet at the distance of the Moon. Jupiter would nearly completely fill the sky.
This video is of course not implying that something like this could happen. It merely compares the sizes of the planets and our moon in a quite original way. It also makes us realize how small the Earth really is compared to the gas giants.
When a duplicate Earth is shown in the sky, it’s actually how large our Earth really looks from the Moon. That’s what the Apollo astronauts witnessed during their stay on the Moon, and hopefully future generations of explorers and maybe even colonists will experience.
Video by bradblogspeed.com
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Paul Tomaszewski
Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
10 Comments
Paul Tomaszewski
To answer your questions, Pluto would look much smaller than the Moon. Pluto’s diameter is only 2320 km, whereas the Moon’s diameter is 3476 km. So if our Moon was replaced by Pluto and if it was at the same distance, then Pluto would appear to be about 2/3 the size of our Moon.
Markis
That was illuminating. thankyou.
Markis
this is still a cool video, but what about Mercury, Uranus and Saturn, hell even pluto? (venus is omitted because it is roughly the same size as the earth.
BillyBobo
I know it isn’t a planet anymore, but what about Pluto… what would it look like???
baconman
I have nightmares about asteroids hitting the earth quite often, this video made me feel the same fear.
binz
@Lonnie
I too got a feeling of dread and utter awe when Jupiter crossed the horizon…
makes you feel so small and fragile…
Miguel
Not to mention the gravitational pull of Jupiter is way bigger than Earth’s so if Jupiter was at that distance…You can only imagine what would happen to us ^^’
Paul Tomaszewski
Thanks for the comments! 🙂
Yes, Saturn would look really cool in the sky.
Anonymous
That’s a great video. I’m not sure I’d want Jupiter quite that close however! I guess Saturn would be interesting as well, as you’d have to wonder what the rings looked like.
Lonnie
OAO… That’s amazing… and scary in the same time… Just like something you would see at the sci-fi movies…