4 ms·
This is a true mind-blowing fact. The ratio of the distances between Earth-Sun and Earth-Moon is close to the ratio of the sizes between Sun & Moon. So the Moon
by saas_sam 6y ago
This is a true mind-blowing fact. The ratio of the distances between Earth-Sun and Earth-Moon is close to the ratio of the sizes between Sun & Moon. So the Moon & Sun look to be the same apparent size from the perspective of Earthlings... When I last read about this, we hadn't identified any other moons for which this holds true.
It turns out our moon has many seemingly strange properties. It's big but not very dense. Still a bit of a mystery how it formed, too. There are leading theories (ex. Mars-sized planet ramming into a young Earth) but not considered settled science just yet IIRC.
- soulofmischief 6y agoWe have no idea how lucky we are and we're destroying our planet and the life within. There are probably so many things about our situation which we take for granted, many things with infinitesimally small chances of occurring even within just systems harboring sentient life. The number of systems which reach our intellectual capacity must all have certain aspects which make them completely unique, a rare feat in such a large and repetitive universe.
- kyuudou 6y agoWiden out the scope a bit and you see Bode's law[1] all the way out to Neptune. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titius%E2%80%93Bode_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titius%E2%80%93Bode_law