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Here's an animation I did to make you feel small, and also convey the deep awe I feel at the feet of the Universe.
While watching the video of the lunar eclipse I posted the other day I was looking at the curvature of the earth's shadow on the moon. It made me think about how large the earth might look if an exact copy of it was up there instead of the moon. Soon curiosity got the better of me, and I was animating!
So the basic idea is, each planet you see is the size it would appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with the moon, 380,000 kms from earth. I created this video in After Effects, and because of certain technical considerations had to keep the field of view at 62 degrees. That means the foreground element is not precisely to scale. I realized this after the fact and may update the video at some point in the future. All planets are to correct scale with one another in any case.
29 Comments
siftbotThe thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by Ornthoron.
WKBWow, that animation for Jupiter looked really good. Needs more Saturn though. I wonder if we would even be outside of the radius of the rings or if we would be engulfed.
shuacIs this the same fellow that showed us what it would look like if Earth had a ring system? My SpideySense tells me yes.
BuckUranus is big
dystopianfuturetodaySurf's up!
Jinxsays...>> ^WKB:
Wow, that animation for Jupiter looked really good. Needs more Saturn though. I wonder if we would even be outside of the radius of the rings or if we would be engulfed.
I don't think so. Saturn itself has a radius of about 60,000km, and the rings (or at least the part we can see) extend for some 120,000km from the surface. At its closest the moon is some 360,000km from Earth. We'd be pretty close though.
Incidentally, to walk all the way around Saturn is almost the same distance from Earth to the Moon. That gives a pretty good idea of scale.
jimnmsI was hoping to see more planets.
kronosposeidonJupiter thinks it's so cool.
siftbotThe duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 1:18 - length declared by kronosposeidon.
Double-Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, January 29th, 2011 3:44pm PST - doublepromote requested by kronosposeidon.
deathcowI have observed Saturn and Jupiter passing behind the moon, I always conjectured the opposite would be much more exciting.
entr0py>> ^Buck:
Uranus is big
But Uranus isn't even in this vid-- Oh I see what you did there.
DonanFearsays...Nice video but why did he have to animate the rotation? The moon isn't supposed to spin at all when viewed from the Earth and the planets were spinning the wrong way!
/nerdrage
solecistyeah, and how did earth orbit EARTH? how many earths does this so called "scientist" want us to think are out there?!>> ^DonanFear:
Nice video but why did he have to animate the rotation? The moon isn't supposed to spin at all when viewed from the Earth and the planets were spinning the wrong way!
/nerdrage
HaricotVert"Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in."
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Surf's up!
rottenseed>> ^kronosposeidon:
Jupiter thinks it's so cool.
I knew you were more of a neptune man...
blankfist>> ^rottenseed:
>> ^kronosposeidon:
Jupiter thinks it's so cool.
I knew you were more of a neptune man...
He's more into Uranus. Phoned that one in.
rottenseed>> ^blankfist:
>> ^rottenseed:
>> ^kronosposeidon:
Jupiter thinks it's so cool.
I knew you were more of a neptune man...
He's more into Uranus. Phoned that one in.
Not too good for the pedestrian jokes, are we blanky-poo?
blankfist>> ^rottenseed:
Not too good for the pedestrian jokes, are we blanky-poo?
But I'm not so bad with the English language.
FusionautYou speak English good.>> ^blankfist:
>> ^rottenseed:
Not too good for the pedestrian jokes, are we blanky-poo?
But I'm not so bad with the English language.
lucky760"What if other planetary bodies orbited our world at the same distance as the moon?"
If those larger planetary bodies were at the same distance from our world as the moon, we would be orbiting them, stupid. </trolling>
dannym3141*deep breath*
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-cut, futurama style-
dannym3141>> ^lucky760:
"What if other planetary bodies orbited our world at the same distance as the moon?"
If those larger planetary bodies were at the same distance from our world as the moon, we would be orbiting them, stupid. </trolling>
Ahem. All orbiting bodies orbit around a barycentre between the two objects.
/troll
FlowersInHisHair>> ^dannym3141:
>> ^lucky760:
"What if other planetary bodies orbited our world at the same distance as the moon?"
If those larger planetary bodies were at the same distance from our world as the moon, we would be orbiting them, stupid. </trolling>
Ahem. All orbiting bodies orbit around a barycentre between the two objects.
/troll
Interestingly, the barycentre is often inside one of the objects, as in the case of the Earth/Moon. The Sun's barycentre is variable because of the distribution of the mass in the Solar System but it's normally just above its surface.
dannym3141>> ^FlowersInHisHair:
>> ^dannym3141:
>> ^lucky760:
"What if other planetary bodies orbited our world at the same distance as the moon?"
If those larger planetary bodies were at the same distance from our world as the moon, we would be orbiting them, stupid. </trolling>
Ahem. All orbiting bodies orbit around a barycentre between the two objects.
/troll
Interestingly, the barycentre is often inside one of the objects, as in the case of the Earth/Moon. The Sun's barycentre is variable because of the distribution of the mass in the Solar System but it's normally just above its surface.
It depends what you're on about - the 'average' barycentre if there is such a thing? For Jupiter, the barycentre of that orbit is outside the surface of the sun, but for earth it's way inside.
Because of the effect of the planets on the sun, it wobbles around a lot, tugged in lots of directions by the distributed mass around it. Same goes for the earth, if we idealise the orbit to be circular, then even that circle would be a wiggly line as the moon goes around us.
Prof of mine has told me in the past he's had to correct for doppler shift because of that effect!
NicoleBeeOh my.. Whats the soundtrack to this?
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siftbotIf the Moon were replaced with some of our planets has been added as a related post - related requested by dingens on that post.
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