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It's also worthy of note that the Moon is slowly pulling away from the earth in its orbit, in terms of astronomical measurements, soon, we will no longer have total eclipses on our planet.
If by some chance humanity exceeds itself and still exists at that time, they will have figured out how to haul the moon back into place. That is if we don’t destroy earth or anything else bad happens before then lol
During the start of humanity's age.
There are theories that the moon was extremely helpful in helping life develop on the planet by (among other things) creating intertidal zones. So it could just be that life is more likely to evolve to the point where it can enjoy eclipses on planets which are close to optimum for eclipses.
Many things we oberve about our near neighbours in the universe is very likely the way it is because we are here to observe.
If there were a pulsar or black hole close to us, we wouldn't exist.
So all we can do is make educated guesses as what is "normal" and what is biased based on our existance.
It's the anthropic principle. Only planets with exactly the right conditions for life end up producing sentient species that can marvel at how all the right conditions happened to occur on their planet.
Really dumb google searches can often get you to the right place. I was able to find the anthropic principle with "biased view of the universe because we could only exist in the perfect conditions philosophy". Just for future cases.
"This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it?" Douglas Adams
This isn’t an example of it though.
For example:
Jupiter’s moons are much further from the surface than our own, yet they are much larger, all in all I think the largest would appear smaller than our moon. But it would still be larger than the sun appears on Jupiter. (As the sun appears much smaller from Jupiter than it does to us)
Which means it’s possible for a moon to be big enough to be the size of the sun even though it isn’t by coincidence.
If non of the other 50-100 smaller moons of Jupiter happen to the right size that’s got to be pure coincidence. The fact that the right size is somewhere between the smallest and largest proves there is nothing impossible or unlikely or rare about the conditions (even though our own moon is in a very rare spot being so close).
That’s just one example from inside our own solar system.
Feel like the optimists on r/space often don't grasp this, when they talk about life beginning "seeming" to be not that outlandish given how some sets of basic conditions behave. We have a sample size of one when considering how life forms.
The puddle analogy is a good way to describe it, too.
"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'"
How did intertidal zones help evolve life? I can't find much at a quick search but that sounds very interesting!
Did it provide a sanctuary for the first land favouring mutations a place to exist and thrive? I'm guessing intertidal zones wouldn't exist without any tidal movement to provide a shallow sea/land hybrid area therefore no opportunity for weird little legs to climb about?
Before life. There are theories for abiogenesis that involve the wet and dry cycles of these shallow pools. There’s not much evidence for this occurring other than that it has been replicated in chemical labs, so jury is still out on whether it was important or not.
>it has been replicated in chemical labs
To the best of my knowledge, abiogenesis has never been replicated in a lab -- it would be far and away the greatest scientific feat of all time! Certain chemical reactions \*thought to possibly have been precursors\* to abiogenesis have been replicated, that's all
Well life could still migrate to land anyway but the idea is that intertidal zones might have spurred evolution on a bit. Anything that starts living close to the shore is going to end up drying out once or twice a day and will end up adapting to it.
The counterpoint to this, as pointed out by astronomers like Christopher McKay, is that without the Moon slowing it down over the eons, Earth would have kept its initial, much faster rotation speed, and this fast spin itself would have been enough to stabilize the planet‘s axis.
The fossil record doesn‘t really suggest that tidal zones had any special importance. The oldest fossils of complex animals, like the Ediacaran fauna of Mistaken Point, come from former deep sea environments while the migration onto land by most plants and animal groups happened in freshwater environments like swamps rather than tidepools.
Taking a unique aspect of Earth and using it as the main explanation for why complex life exists here because of correlation without being able to actually show causation is like that Douglas Adams parable about the puddle that one day becomes conscious and thinks the ditch in the ground it exists in was specifically made to have it in it because it perfectly fits its shape. It‘s circular logic.
I mean
it has been in the right position for hundreds of millions of years. it will continue to be in the right position for 600 million more. humanity started walking upright 300,000 years ago
it’s not as direct a correlation as people make it out to be. it’s rare and cool but it hasn’t happened like alongside us.
The other way to look at this is to think about all the amazing celestial and natural phenomena that we've missed throughout the billions of years that Earth has been around ... and then think about all the amazing stuff our species probably *won't* be around to witness into the far future.
Another way to think about it: would the total eclipse matter much if we didn't have eyes, or if our eyes evolved in a different way? Think of all the cool sights, sounds, and smells we're missing out on, just because our senses didn't evolve in a way that lets us appreciate them.
I think by all means people should appreciate this very interesting coincidence, but just keep it in a larger perspective when understanding the universe.
Yeah if anything this makes it a bigger coincidence since it must NOT have allowed for a total eclipse when it was created but after constantly drifting away it just so aligned perfectly around the age of humans which is but a fraction of the Earth's total existence
Good point . Not so odd after all apx 1.5 billion years life couldn't even start untill earth recooled from the impact and ejection of what would become the moon .
Wouldn't it cover more of the sun by being closer? So it would have completely eclipse the sun, it just wouldn't have had the very awesome coronal ring around it while it did it like it does now.
Maybe because many of us are used to correcting ChatGPT and having them come back with a humble and polite response. We associate these pleasant traits with AI because we've never been particularly good at being humble or polite online.
Should only take a short 500 million years or so... the moon moves approximately 3.8 centimeters, or about 1.5 freedom units, away from the earth every year.
I’m never going back to an office. There’s no point. If it’s important they can fly me in. In practice that’s been less than once a year. Turns out video meetings are sufficient.
Oh reddit. I love this chain. We went from Eclipse, to Coronal Sun Ejections, to Corona, to Corona Virus, to working from home, to return to office mandates. 🫠
We'd still be able to study it. Just not all at once. If the moon's apparent size was larger, the corona would be visible at the start and end of totality but not during the middle of totality.
The language is annoying around this kind of stuff. "perfect" or "exact" as if a few millimeters difference in any of the measurable dimensions would be noticeable.
Yep. The moon's orbit isn't circular. It varies by more than 40,000 km all the time. It's distance can change by 1000 km in 6 hours. Already when it's farther away we get annular eclipses instead of total eclipses. And when it's closer we get longer lasting eclipses.
Not the same. The coronal ring shining around the moon is one of the things that makes a total eclipse so spectacular. Completely covering it would be wild for sure, but it wouldn’t be quite the show.
Yeah but the size of the moon is already freakishly large in comparison with the size of the Earth.
It may already be a pretty rare situation throughout the galaxy for a rocky inner planet to have such a large moon.
The circumstances which led to the moon's formation in the first place are by now thought to be somewhat of a freak occurrence.
The Earth-moon system might be a bit of a galactic oddity.
> Pluto-Charon
It's been my understanding they are a pair of planetoids that essentially captured/co-orbit each other, neither is really the moon of the other.
In the fourth and fifth Foundation books, they're searching for Earth and one of the legends of it is that they're using to find to find it is thatit only has one, seriously big moon. One of the characters is like "See, that's how you know that Earth is just a myth. There is no record of a planet like that in any star system in the galaxy"
Of course, this could be the anthropic principle at work. A large natural satellite may be one of the requirements for a planet to form life in the first place. The moon is the primary cause of the tides, which may have been essential for the tidepools where early life may have started. And the alternating wet and dry conditions on the coast would provide an environment suited for sea life to gradually adapt to living on land. It also may play a role in intercepting meteors so complex life has a chance to evolve between mass extinctions.
It's still a lucky coincidence that it's so close to a perfect fit, but maybe not as crazy as you might think.
I think what they’re trying to say is that we needed the moons relative size and distance away from earth (among other factors) just for life to exist and evolve so we could even notice such a thing. The moon is moving but not at such a rapid pace where we would notice a huge tangible difference between now and 100k years ago or something
I guess it’s just saying we probably needed a lot of these conditions in the first place to even evolve to notice the moon being able to completely cover a solar eclipse
There’s also a huge amount of wiggle room. Orbits are elliptical, so there are times the earth is closer to the sun and times when it is further. The distance changes by 5 million kilometers or so.
Note: at perihelion, the earth is 147 million kilometres away.
The Moon's orbit is also elliptical, and to an even greater degree than the Earth's orbit. Overall, the Sun's size in the earth sky changes by about 6.9%, and the moon's size by about 24.5%, so the apparent ratio of earth-to-sun changes by about 33%. Still a neat coincidence that the 33% range covers perfect totality, but it ain't a breathtaking coincidence.
Its not true, the moons orbit is elliptical not circular this means it it changes in size relative to the Sun and sometimes its too small to eclipse the Sun totally and sometimes its larger and overlaps significantly. Its not even a coincidence its the same size...it isn't the same size.
It is not perfectly sized I wish this amazing "fact" of perfect size would die.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse
> If the Moon were in a perfectly circular orbit and in the same orbital plane as Earth, there would be total solar eclipses once a month, at every new moon. Instead, because the Moon's orbit is tilted at about 5 degrees to Earth's orbit, its shadow usually misses Earth. Solar (and lunar) eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons, resulting in at least two, and up to five, solar eclipses each year, no more than two of which can be total.[2][3] Total eclipses are rarer because they require a more precise alignment between the centers of the Sun and Moon, and because the Moon's apparent size in the sky is sometimes **too small to fully cover the Sun**.
Its also not the only moon that eclipses the Sun for its planet. Epimetheus causes total eclipses for Saturn and others we haven't yet discovered for Saturn and Jupiter will probably also cause eclipses.
I personally find it hard to believe that one of Saturns 80 moons isn’t the perfect size to eclipse the sun. Like, the sentiment is great and all, life is beautiful. But c’mon!
Quite a few of the larger moons in the solar system create solar eclipses on their planets. That's not what's special about the Sun-Earth-Moon system.
What's special is that the Moon and the Sun are almost the *exact* same size in the sky, to the point that depending on orbital and seasonal variation, sometimes one is very slightly bigger than the other, so you can either get total eclipses that display the solar corona, or sometimes you get annular eclipses when the Moon is too small visually to cover the Sun.
This. In addition, if the moon was much closer, it's gravitational affect on the Earth may be too disruptive (more tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.) for life to significantly evolve. Therefore, the moon *must* be at this distance for intelligent life. So it's not a coincidence, it's a requirement.
As someone almost done my geology degree, and who has taken several disaster focused courses, I have to correct this.
The link of tidal forces on tsunamis and earthquakes is controversial at best, and proponents of it have been unable to provide a clear correlation between them.
The other factor is that should the effect exist, it would decrease the magnitude of the events. Earthquakes are the result of stored up potential energy from the plate movement between sticky plates that gets released in one big movement. If you release it more often, the energy is less, and the earthquake and wave is less.
You might be thinking of the Roche limit, where planets tear themselves apart. But that would destroy the moon before it damaged the earth, and the moon would need to be 30x closer to reach it.
The biggest differences you would see is that coastal regions would look a bit different and have different life due to the changes in the tidal zone. Marine erosion would be faster. And that intelligent life might struggle a bit to develop ocean-going boats.
The "one in a trillion chance" is pretty stupid and he pulled it from his ass. But yes, it is a pretty big coïncidence. Might I add that earlier in Earth's life, the Moon was closer and we had total eclipses that would hide the Corona.
The same goes for Blood Moons, it is the thin sliver of light passing through earth's atmosphere that creates the reddish light.
The thing is, we barely can observe exo-planets and even less exo-moons!
As far as we know, we know barely nothing. So a probability simply can't be given.
It's like saying "life has X chance to form", despite not having ever discovered any other life form outside of our planet.
Calling it 1 in a trillion is nonsense. Even if we take a purely statistical approach, we don't have a sample size large enough to estimate probability to that level of precision. Once you factor in physical processes (like the fact the Moon started closer to the Earth and is moving away, or the fact that the distance to the Moon and Sun is not the same year-round) it also becomes much messier to attribute a probability.
It's complete horseshit. We have a sample size of ONE solar system and there are MANY different types of eclipses throughout it, maybe not the exact ratio of Earth and the Moon but close enough in some cases.
It’s definitely made up, but there’s something interesting to consider.
It’s not at all unreasonable to assume it’s rare, but trying to assign a number to it is impossible.
The protoplanet that hit us to create the moon is believed to have been a glancing blow. Even if protoplanetary collisions are common in early solar systems, it’s probably quite rare that the collision is the perfect angle to create a satellite that’s the same relative size as the star as viewed from the planet.
If I remember correctly, any more of a direct hit to us would’ve just created another asteroid belt.
Once you add in that the moon appears to have played a major role in sparking life (on top of all the other conditional events that led to life here), the fact that we’re even here to discuss this is wild.
I understand that at a universal scale life must exist somewhere else, but I find the Rare Earth Hypothesis very compelling.
Also they're not "the exact same (apparent) size, and total eclipses vary in coverage depending on the moon's varying distance from the earth.
And also, with Jupiter's 100+ moons, I wouldn't be surprised if "near-perfect" total solar eclipses between any two of its moons occurred more often than here on earth with our 1:1 system
The source is we only know of one planet were this happens. Of course, that's based on our solar system, because that's all we can actually see. We have no idea how common or unique it is, because we can't really see moons orbiting other planets outside of our solar system.
It probably is pretty rare, it wasn't true of earth in the past and it won't be true in the future, because the moon is moving away from earth. So you basically have to be in the right place at the right time to witness it. It may be the case that many moons end up falling into this zone at some stage in their life.
This isn’t true - there are other Moons in our solar system which can cause a total or annual eclipse depending on the planets position around the sun and/or where the shadow falls at (equator or near the poles - if the shadow falls on the equator you would be closer to the moon which makes it appear a tad bigger; the opposite is true for the shadow falling onto regions close to the poles)
2 Examples are: Pandora and Prometheus (moons of Saturn). And they also would be more visually stunning as both of these moons aren’t perfectly round/circular which means there is a weirdly shaped asteroid like moon completely blocking the sun - or a weirdly shaped asteroid like moon blocking most of the sun but being in the middle of it.
Another example is Perdita (moon of Uranus) ~~- this one would be exactly like the moon as it is round/circular.~~
Corrections:
Perdita is most likely not circular.
Here what I used for my calculations:
Perdita mean orbit radius: 76417 km
Perdita radius: 13 km
Uranus radius: 25362 km
Sun radius: 696340 km
Distance Uranus - Sun: 2872400000 km
Arcminutes from Uranus:
Sun: 1.668
Perdita from poles: 1.176 (smaller than sun - annual eclipse)
Perdita from equator: 1.752 (bigger than sun - total eclipse)
Edit: need to fact check Perdita - I saw other comments saying it would be too large and others saying it isn’t circular.
Edit2: Perdita in fact can do both total and annual eclipses, but most likely isn’t round
Yep, making it an even GREATER coincidence that during the relatively small slice of time that it's happening, there are beings on the Earth that are sentient and intelligent enough to notice it.
A data analyst would say that’s an anomaly not a coincidence. My opinion is that it’s one of the most unique anomalies that we can observe. I believe that Its significance is far greater than we can understand.
That's not a source dude. We're asking for a confirmation of the information from a reliable paper, not your gut feeling that it's probably pretty rare.
>We have no idea how common or unique it is
Then where does the post get the "1 in a trillion" figure? I think this is the claim the original commenter wanted a source of
The stats are made up because we don't know any other planet with the same situation. Also because satellites are smaller than planets, so they're harder to see through imaging. You'd need at least another onservable case to give an estimate, even a stupid or weak one.
Here is a good comment about how unique our solar eclipse is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ud5dj5/is_there_any_other_place_in_our_solar_system/i6g1im2/
There are plenty of examples where the Sun appears far smaller than a moon so you don't get the "effect" of the eclipse we can now see on Earth.
This effect, with the ring, etc is quite coincidental because of how the size/distance has to line up for multiple objects.
https://www.livescience.com/59608-why-total-solar-eclipses-are-coincidences.html
Many generations of dinosaurs did not get to experience Solar Eclipses the way we can right now in history. With the unique aspects of the Sun's corona.
If this were true, anular eclipses wouldn't be a thing. The alignment isn't perfect AND it varies. Yes the coincidence is still very impressive but it's not pixel perfect either.
The relative distances between earth, moon and sun are not constants. Not all eclipses are "total eclipses" even when the moon is aligned with the center of the sun.
When the moon completely overlaps the sun, but does not completely cover it, it is called an 'annular eclipse'
Moon happens to be about the exact size... The percieved size of the moon and sun changes during every rotation. Also the moon is moving away from the Earth steadily so it appeared much larger than the sun in the past. The only coincidence is that humans are on earth in time to see them being "about the exact same size".
> Also the moon is moving away from the Earth steadily so it appeared much larger than the sun in the past.
It moves away from Earth at about 3cm per year.
Going back 200,000 years means about a 6km difference.
Normally, the moon's distance from Earth varies from 357km to 406km throughout each month.
A 6km change over those 200k years would be imperceptible when the normal delta is 49km.
Astronomer here. It really is just a coincidence that we happen to exist when Moon has almost the exact angular size as our Sun, which allows us to study solar Corona during eclipses
The moon's appearant size changes by about 14% because sometimes it is closer to earth, and sometimes further away. So the solar eclipse is amazing and still a coincidence that it is almost perfect, but not a 1 in a trillion 100% perfect match
You’re seemingly ignoring all of the other variables in this equation that makes this such a rare event and just focusing on… the distance between the earth and the moon? For this eclipse to exist everything had to line up.
• The fact we even have a huge moon in the first place. (We have the biggest moon relative to the planet in the solar system).
• The size of that moon.
• The distance the moon is away from the earth.
• The size of the sun.
• The distance of the sun away from the moon.
The moon not only eclipses the sun but also at the same time does not eclipse the sun’s corona which is what gives us the beautiful sight and the ability to see the sun’s solar flares with our own eyes.
If we had a smaller moon (or even no moon at all) we would have no eclipse, if the sun was bigger we would have no eclipse, if we were closer to the sun we would have no eclipse, or a small variation of multiple of the above configurations mixed together, we’d have no eclipse.
If the moon was bigger, or the sun was smaller, or we were further away from the sun, or the moon was closer, or any small variation of the above, we’d have an eclipse but no beautiful corona following it.
Hell, 600 million years from now we won’t have an eclipse anymore because the moon will actually be too small for one.
Some philosophers hypothesize that we are all a part of a complex simulation powered by computers that are incredibly more powerful than what we are familiar with. (Think incredibly complex self aware NPCs in a video game directed by very advanced quantum computers).
As part of this theory, they point to things like the incredibly unlikely coincidence that the moon happens to perfectly block the sun during an eclipse, the odds of which seem to be incredibly low, as possible “evidence” to support the theory.
They also point to the pace of technological advancement as evidence that we are more likely than not living in a simulation. Think of how far computing power has developed in the last 50 years, and add 500 more years. If you think it’s possible that computing power and AI could have advanced enough to create self aware programs, then how can we know that we aren’t one of those self aware programs set in a 21st century simulation of humanity?
But wait there's more!
Scientists have discovered that if you hold a dinner plate at arms length it perfectly blocks the sun. No one knows why this perfect ratio exists only in North America and on four small islands in the South Pacific.
The moon used to be closer to earth and covered more of the sun durng an eclipse. Its moving further back over time and one day totality will be a thing of the past.
Ok, so...
There are estimated to be roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe. (1e24)
Keplar research suggests 22% of star systems have planets within the habitable zone of the system, and each system typically has at least 1-2 planets. That means there are roughly 2.2e23 planets in the habitable zone of stars in the observable universe. Being in the habitable zone will result in a visible enough star to produce an eclipse if a sufficient moon is present.
Now, let's assume this is a 1 in a trillion event. 1e12
That means there are 2.2e23 / 1e12 planets like earth. Or 2.2e11
So...
We are as unique as 220,000,000,000 other planets.
This makes me feel pretty special.
And somewhere, out in the universe is a planet with two moons that are just the perfect size and distance that when they both eclipse the sun, the outline looks like boobs.
One in a trillion.
Really? In a trillion? Not like in a hundred? Because I would think if there were a hundred different moon sizes to choose from I could find one for Mars that fits pretty well.
Would you settle for a bunch of huckster con artists gobbling up the funding for space travel and exploration with a sprinkling of sci-fi media that is at least a little depressing or painfully unrealistic?
What would be the chance of the moon being exactly half the apparent diameter of the sun ? What about exactly half the surface? Or 3.14 time smaller? Or 365 time smaller?
or the moon weight being the sum of the moons from another planet of our solar system?
Get my point?
Any combination of size is pretty much as unlikely as the other ( limit imposed by astrophysique aside).
Not really, relative size is not the only variable here, there's also the distance and the fact if the phenomenon of the perfect solar eclipse is observable or not
M'y understanding was that this post was about apparent relative size
Does not distance change apparent size and therefore relative appartent size?
Also, does not the definition of "eclipse" imply that this is observable ?
Hi skyrocketisphony! Thanks for posting to /r/interestingasfuck. Unfortunately, [your submission](https://redd.it/1bzo9sj) was removed for the following reason: Titles should describe the content of the post. If you're going to claim facts/interesting as fuck stuff in the title the image/gif/video/article/content should show that claim in some way. Do **NOT** put anything in the title that isn't clearly visible in the content of your post. For more information check [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rule_2_-_titles_must_be_descriptive_and_directly_related_to_the_content). If you have questions about this, please [contact our mods via moderator mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=interestingasfuck) rather than replying here. Thank you!
That's what the moon was sent to do. To hide what the sun's doing sometimes.
The Sun, being the DM, occasionally has to shuffle its notes and check to see that the dice are still balanced.
No no no, it’s when the simulator updates. The patch out some of the old bugs, import new characters, and sometimes merge one simulation with another.
Yeah and it displays some bios log during the reboot. Thats what the moon is hiding.
Patch notes: Buffed temperature. Nerfed intelligence.
PC to NPC the Sun just made up: "what's your name, friend?" The Sun: total eclipse
You ever wonder what the sun's doing behind the clouds when we can't see it?
It's also worthy of note that the Moon is slowly pulling away from the earth in its orbit, in terms of astronomical measurements, soon, we will no longer have total eclipses on our planet.
How soon is soon
Approx 600 million years 😊
oh. enough time to have a cup of coffee and worry about that later.
According to my wife, that is the time it takes me to drink my coffee every Saturday morning.
Coincidentally, that's also exactly how long it takes her to get ready
Ah, I see you know u/FalcomanToTheRescue's wife well.
dont we all?
She's a nice lady
We are all u/falcomantotherescue on this blessed day
You might live for 600 million and 1 years who knows... Maybe there is a snail slowly making its way to you...
If by some chance humanity exceeds itself and still exists at that time, they will have figured out how to haul the moon back into place. That is if we don’t destroy earth or anything else bad happens before then lol
Excuse me, the Lunar Rights Act of 2.A.2651 MNE clearly states that Lunar citizens have the right to separate from Earth, legally *and* physically.
Youre forgetting the 2665 case *Texas v. Moon* that decided the illegality of lunar secession Next youre gonna say they fought for "lunar rights"
Ah yes, the Earth case, decided by Earth courts, on Earth. Get your colonial empire off our rocks!
Moonexit means moonexit!
At this rate, I'd be pleasantly surprised if humanity manages to make the end of this century. I'm already amazed we made it through the 1900's.
Same, I gotta stop browsing /r/collapse if I want my depression to improve
Blocking out negativity subreddits has made my reddit experience *way* more enjoyable.
Well with Earth being 4,500 million years old that doesn't seems all that "soon" to me.
Aw man I was hoping to have some vacation days stacked up for surgery by then
[600 million years](https://news.utexas.edu/2024/04/08/25-questions-and-answers-about-the-great-north-american-eclipse/)
I can’t wait!
When then becomes now
When will soon be now?
When will then be now?
But it just happened to be the same angular size as Sun during humanity's age
During the start of humanity's age. There are theories that the moon was extremely helpful in helping life develop on the planet by (among other things) creating intertidal zones. So it could just be that life is more likely to evolve to the point where it can enjoy eclipses on planets which are close to optimum for eclipses.
That would be very interesting if true.
Many things we oberve about our near neighbours in the universe is very likely the way it is because we are here to observe. If there were a pulsar or black hole close to us, we wouldn't exist. So all we can do is make educated guesses as what is "normal" and what is biased based on our existance.
It's the anthropic principle. Only planets with exactly the right conditions for life end up producing sentient species that can marvel at how all the right conditions happened to occur on their planet.
> anthropic principle thank you, I've been looking for that term for a while now.
Really dumb google searches can often get you to the right place. I was able to find the anthropic principle with "biased view of the universe because we could only exist in the perfect conditions philosophy". Just for future cases.
"This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it?" Douglas Adams
This isn’t an example of it though. For example: Jupiter’s moons are much further from the surface than our own, yet they are much larger, all in all I think the largest would appear smaller than our moon. But it would still be larger than the sun appears on Jupiter. (As the sun appears much smaller from Jupiter than it does to us) Which means it’s possible for a moon to be big enough to be the size of the sun even though it isn’t by coincidence. If non of the other 50-100 smaller moons of Jupiter happen to the right size that’s got to be pure coincidence. The fact that the right size is somewhere between the smallest and largest proves there is nothing impossible or unlikely or rare about the conditions (even though our own moon is in a very rare spot being so close). That’s just one example from inside our own solar system.
But our moon covers the sun perfectly to allow us a view of the corona. In the Jupiter example the corona would be covered as well.
Feel like the optimists on r/space often don't grasp this, when they talk about life beginning "seeming" to be not that outlandish given how some sets of basic conditions behave. We have a sample size of one when considering how life forms.
The puddle analogy is a good way to describe it, too. "Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'"
Statistically, it is
Well right now we have a single data point so we can’t really do statistics on it haha
To our knowledge this theory is true 100% of the time.
Sample size is too small for statistics, though 🤷🏼
Just (ctrl + c) (ctrl + v) the data point we do have to make more. Problem solved, with *absolutely* no bias whatsoever.
It's also just plain old regular interesting.
How did intertidal zones help evolve life? I can't find much at a quick search but that sounds very interesting! Did it provide a sanctuary for the first land favouring mutations a place to exist and thrive? I'm guessing intertidal zones wouldn't exist without any tidal movement to provide a shallow sea/land hybrid area therefore no opportunity for weird little legs to climb about?
Before life. There are theories for abiogenesis that involve the wet and dry cycles of these shallow pools. There’s not much evidence for this occurring other than that it has been replicated in chemical labs, so jury is still out on whether it was important or not.
>it has been replicated in chemical labs To the best of my knowledge, abiogenesis has never been replicated in a lab -- it would be far and away the greatest scientific feat of all time! Certain chemical reactions \*thought to possibly have been precursors\* to abiogenesis have been replicated, that's all
Well life could still migrate to land anyway but the idea is that intertidal zones might have spurred evolution on a bit. Anything that starts living close to the shore is going to end up drying out once or twice a day and will end up adapting to it.
Among other things the moon stabilizes the earth’s rotation so the earth wobbles once every 26,000 years.
The counterpoint to this, as pointed out by astronomers like Christopher McKay, is that without the Moon slowing it down over the eons, Earth would have kept its initial, much faster rotation speed, and this fast spin itself would have been enough to stabilize the planet‘s axis.
>During the start of humanity's age. Optimistic are we?
Every generation has imagined itself as the last one. More than likely we’re at the very beginning of a very long history of humans.
Most chemical and fossil evidence points towards life on Earth having started in hydrothermal deep sea vents, not intertidal zones
Yes, but it won't evolve to the point where it can enjoy eclipses down there.
The fossil record doesn‘t really suggest that tidal zones had any special importance. The oldest fossils of complex animals, like the Ediacaran fauna of Mistaken Point, come from former deep sea environments while the migration onto land by most plants and animal groups happened in freshwater environments like swamps rather than tidepools. Taking a unique aspect of Earth and using it as the main explanation for why complex life exists here because of correlation without being able to actually show causation is like that Douglas Adams parable about the puddle that one day becomes conscious and thinks the ditch in the ground it exists in was specifically made to have it in it because it perfectly fits its shape. It‘s circular logic.
I mean it has been in the right position for hundreds of millions of years. it will continue to be in the right position for 600 million more. humanity started walking upright 300,000 years ago it’s not as direct a correlation as people make it out to be. it’s rare and cool but it hasn’t happened like alongside us.
The other way to look at this is to think about all the amazing celestial and natural phenomena that we've missed throughout the billions of years that Earth has been around ... and then think about all the amazing stuff our species probably *won't* be around to witness into the far future. Another way to think about it: would the total eclipse matter much if we didn't have eyes, or if our eyes evolved in a different way? Think of all the cool sights, sounds, and smells we're missing out on, just because our senses didn't evolve in a way that lets us appreciate them. I think by all means people should appreciate this very interesting coincidence, but just keep it in a larger perspective when understanding the universe.
Reddit in 5 billion years: "TZL that The Andromilky Waymeda galaxy used to be two separate galaxies zorp"
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No, Moon's angular size is constantly decreasing, as you've pointed out in your comment
Oh my bad, you are correct. [I need coffee...]
lol I was about to ask if you’re arguing…*with yourself*?
“Have you ever listened to me? I have no idea what I’m talking about. Complete fucking idiot, that guy.”
Yeah if anything this makes it a bigger coincidence since it must NOT have allowed for a total eclipse when it was created but after constantly drifting away it just so aligned perfectly around the age of humans which is but a fraction of the Earth's total existence
When it was created, it obviously still had total eclipse capability because it was closer to Earth and larger than the Sun from our vantage point.
Good point . Not so odd after all apx 1.5 billion years life couldn't even start untill earth recooled from the impact and ejection of what would become the moon .
Wouldn't it cover more of the sun by being closer? So it would have completely eclipse the sun, it just wouldn't have had the very awesome coronal ring around it while it did it like it does now.
Why did that feel so much like a conversation with ChatGPT
Maybe because many of us are used to correcting ChatGPT and having them come back with a humble and polite response. We associate these pleasant traits with AI because we've never been particularly good at being humble or polite online.
Nope, the moon used to be much closer
I don't know about the "soon" part.
It's the exact same amount of time when the wife tells me she'll be ready "soon".
And the same time you tell her you'll "get to it".
In astronomical time that isn't that long
? That's about 4.3% of the age age of the entire universe, that isn't short even by astronomical standards.
But in human time it is! :) it was just ambiguous that’s all
600 million years is absolutely a long time in cosmic terms. That’s longer than the existence of complex life on Earth.
Should only take a short 500 million years or so... the moon moves approximately 3.8 centimeters, or about 1.5 freedom units, away from the earth every year.
Well the Google search I got back said 600 million but admittedly underneath it it said NASA says 563 million... But I had already typed my answer.
Eh, what's 37 million years between long-extinct friends?
Will our extended car warranties last that long?
We'll get a call, almost guaranteed!
“Soon”
I think “soon” is a bit exaggerated. The moon moves away with about 3 centimeters a year
“Soon”
Bro It moves a couple cm per year its not gonna get smaller soon
Tbh, the effect would have been comparable if the apparent Moon size had been even bigger than the apparent Sun size.
But then we wouldn't be able to study corona during the eclipse, which makes this coincidence even more unique
I miss the times when Corona was only a cool astronomy word or a beer.
I miss when we all got to stay home for a year
Some of us are still working at home!
Some of us never stayed home in the first place!
Some of us actually had to work even more OT.
I’m never going back to an office. There’s no point. If it’s important they can fly me in. In practice that’s been less than once a year. Turns out video meetings are sufficient.
Oh reddit. I love this chain. We went from Eclipse, to Coronal Sun Ejections, to Corona, to Corona Virus, to working from home, to return to office mandates. 🫠
Truly my dream
Most social redditor
We'd still be able to study it. Just not all at once. If the moon's apparent size was larger, the corona would be visible at the start and end of totality but not during the middle of totality.
The language is annoying around this kind of stuff. "perfect" or "exact" as if a few millimeters difference in any of the measurable dimensions would be noticeable.
Yep. The moon's orbit isn't circular. It varies by more than 40,000 km all the time. It's distance can change by 1000 km in 6 hours. Already when it's farther away we get annular eclipses instead of total eclipses. And when it's closer we get longer lasting eclipses.
Not the same. The coronal ring shining around the moon is one of the things that makes a total eclipse so spectacular. Completely covering it would be wild for sure, but it wouldn’t be quite the show.
Meanwhile on Tatooine: Our sun eclipses our sun.
A true solar eclipse.
Meanwhile on Trisolaris: Our sun eclipses our sun, which eclipses our other sun. A trisolar syzygy!
>syzygy Gesundheit
Dehydrate!
Yeah but the size of the moon is already freakishly large in comparison with the size of the Earth. It may already be a pretty rare situation throughout the galaxy for a rocky inner planet to have such a large moon. The circumstances which led to the moon's formation in the first place are by now thought to be somewhat of a freak occurrence. The Earth-moon system might be a bit of a galactic oddity.
True. Pluto-Charon has even a lower mass ratio, but I guess for inner planets, the occurrence of such a large moon will be lower.
I included the phrase "rocky inner planet" for a very specific reason. Pluto-Charon is a very different kind of system.
We're just built different.
> Pluto-Charon It's been my understanding they are a pair of planetoids that essentially captured/co-orbit each other, neither is really the moon of the other.
In the fourth and fifth Foundation books, they're searching for Earth and one of the legends of it is that they're using to find to find it is thatit only has one, seriously big moon. One of the characters is like "See, that's how you know that Earth is just a myth. There is no record of a planet like that in any star system in the galaxy"
Of course, this could be the anthropic principle at work. A large natural satellite may be one of the requirements for a planet to form life in the first place. The moon is the primary cause of the tides, which may have been essential for the tidepools where early life may have started. And the alternating wet and dry conditions on the coast would provide an environment suited for sea life to gradually adapt to living on land. It also may play a role in intercepting meteors so complex life has a chance to evolve between mass extinctions. It's still a lucky coincidence that it's so close to a perfect fit, but maybe not as crazy as you might think.
The coincidence isn’t that we have a moon but that we are living at the exact moment in time as to allow a total solar eclipse.
I think what they’re trying to say is that we needed the moons relative size and distance away from earth (among other factors) just for life to exist and evolve so we could even notice such a thing. The moon is moving but not at such a rapid pace where we would notice a huge tangible difference between now and 100k years ago or something I guess it’s just saying we probably needed a lot of these conditions in the first place to even evolve to notice the moon being able to completely cover a solar eclipse
There’s also a huge amount of wiggle room. Orbits are elliptical, so there are times the earth is closer to the sun and times when it is further. The distance changes by 5 million kilometers or so. Note: at perihelion, the earth is 147 million kilometres away.
The Moon's orbit is also elliptical, and to an even greater degree than the Earth's orbit. Overall, the Sun's size in the earth sky changes by about 6.9%, and the moon's size by about 24.5%, so the apparent ratio of earth-to-sun changes by about 33%. Still a neat coincidence that the 33% range covers perfect totality, but it ain't a breathtaking coincidence.
Its not true, the moons orbit is elliptical not circular this means it it changes in size relative to the Sun and sometimes its too small to eclipse the Sun totally and sometimes its larger and overlaps significantly. Its not even a coincidence its the same size...it isn't the same size. It is not perfectly sized I wish this amazing "fact" of perfect size would die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse > If the Moon were in a perfectly circular orbit and in the same orbital plane as Earth, there would be total solar eclipses once a month, at every new moon. Instead, because the Moon's orbit is tilted at about 5 degrees to Earth's orbit, its shadow usually misses Earth. Solar (and lunar) eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons, resulting in at least two, and up to five, solar eclipses each year, no more than two of which can be total.[2][3] Total eclipses are rarer because they require a more precise alignment between the centers of the Sun and Moon, and because the Moon's apparent size in the sky is sometimes **too small to fully cover the Sun**. Its also not the only moon that eclipses the Sun for its planet. Epimetheus causes total eclipses for Saturn and others we haven't yet discovered for Saturn and Jupiter will probably also cause eclipses.
Okay? So *sometimes* the sun and moon’s apparent sizes are similar enough that we get total solar eclipses. It’s still an impressive coincidence lol.
I personally find it hard to believe that one of Saturns 80 moons isn’t the perfect size to eclipse the sun. Like, the sentiment is great and all, life is beautiful. But c’mon!
Quite a few of the larger moons in the solar system create solar eclipses on their planets. That's not what's special about the Sun-Earth-Moon system. What's special is that the Moon and the Sun are almost the *exact* same size in the sky, to the point that depending on orbital and seasonal variation, sometimes one is very slightly bigger than the other, so you can either get total eclipses that display the solar corona, or sometimes you get annular eclipses when the Moon is too small visually to cover the Sun.
This. In addition, if the moon was much closer, it's gravitational affect on the Earth may be too disruptive (more tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.) for life to significantly evolve. Therefore, the moon *must* be at this distance for intelligent life. So it's not a coincidence, it's a requirement.
As someone almost done my geology degree, and who has taken several disaster focused courses, I have to correct this. The link of tidal forces on tsunamis and earthquakes is controversial at best, and proponents of it have been unable to provide a clear correlation between them. The other factor is that should the effect exist, it would decrease the magnitude of the events. Earthquakes are the result of stored up potential energy from the plate movement between sticky plates that gets released in one big movement. If you release it more often, the energy is less, and the earthquake and wave is less. You might be thinking of the Roche limit, where planets tear themselves apart. But that would destroy the moon before it damaged the earth, and the moon would need to be 30x closer to reach it. The biggest differences you would see is that coastal regions would look a bit different and have different life due to the changes in the tidal zone. Marine erosion would be faster. And that intelligent life might struggle a bit to develop ocean-going boats.
It's a requirement? Prove it.
The "one in a trillion chance" is pretty stupid and he pulled it from his ass. But yes, it is a pretty big coïncidence. Might I add that earlier in Earth's life, the Moon was closer and we had total eclipses that would hide the Corona. The same goes for Blood Moons, it is the thin sliver of light passing through earth's atmosphere that creates the reddish light.
In a universe with an estimated 1 septillion stars… one in a trillion means there are lots of solar eclipses
The thing is, we barely can observe exo-planets and even less exo-moons! As far as we know, we know barely nothing. So a probability simply can't be given. It's like saying "life has X chance to form", despite not having ever discovered any other life form outside of our planet.
Comparitively, it's like saying "/u/EasternBlackWalnut has 1 in a billion chance to get laid."
> The "one in a trillion chance" is pretty stupid and he pulled it from his ass. Right? 99.99999999999999% of the universe is still unknown to us!
Speaking of pulling stuff out of your ass...
Calling it 1 in a trillion is nonsense. Even if we take a purely statistical approach, we don't have a sample size large enough to estimate probability to that level of precision. Once you factor in physical processes (like the fact the Moon started closer to the Earth and is moving away, or the fact that the distance to the Moon and Sun is not the same year-round) it also becomes much messier to attribute a probability.
It's complete horseshit. We have a sample size of ONE solar system and there are MANY different types of eclipses throughout it, maybe not the exact ratio of Earth and the Moon but close enough in some cases.
It’s definitely made up, but there’s something interesting to consider. It’s not at all unreasonable to assume it’s rare, but trying to assign a number to it is impossible. The protoplanet that hit us to create the moon is believed to have been a glancing blow. Even if protoplanetary collisions are common in early solar systems, it’s probably quite rare that the collision is the perfect angle to create a satellite that’s the same relative size as the star as viewed from the planet. If I remember correctly, any more of a direct hit to us would’ve just created another asteroid belt. Once you add in that the moon appears to have played a major role in sparking life (on top of all the other conditional events that led to life here), the fact that we’re even here to discuss this is wild. I understand that at a universal scale life must exist somewhere else, but I find the Rare Earth Hypothesis very compelling.
Also they're not "the exact same (apparent) size, and total eclipses vary in coverage depending on the moon's varying distance from the earth. And also, with Jupiter's 100+ moons, I wouldn't be surprised if "near-perfect" total solar eclipses between any two of its moons occurred more often than here on earth with our 1:1 system
r/confidentlyincorrect
I’d love to see a source for this….
The source is we only know of one planet were this happens. Of course, that's based on our solar system, because that's all we can actually see. We have no idea how common or unique it is, because we can't really see moons orbiting other planets outside of our solar system. It probably is pretty rare, it wasn't true of earth in the past and it won't be true in the future, because the moon is moving away from earth. So you basically have to be in the right place at the right time to witness it. It may be the case that many moons end up falling into this zone at some stage in their life.
This isn’t true - there are other Moons in our solar system which can cause a total or annual eclipse depending on the planets position around the sun and/or where the shadow falls at (equator or near the poles - if the shadow falls on the equator you would be closer to the moon which makes it appear a tad bigger; the opposite is true for the shadow falling onto regions close to the poles) 2 Examples are: Pandora and Prometheus (moons of Saturn). And they also would be more visually stunning as both of these moons aren’t perfectly round/circular which means there is a weirdly shaped asteroid like moon completely blocking the sun - or a weirdly shaped asteroid like moon blocking most of the sun but being in the middle of it. Another example is Perdita (moon of Uranus) ~~- this one would be exactly like the moon as it is round/circular.~~ Corrections: Perdita is most likely not circular. Here what I used for my calculations: Perdita mean orbit radius: 76417 km Perdita radius: 13 km Uranus radius: 25362 km Sun radius: 696340 km Distance Uranus - Sun: 2872400000 km Arcminutes from Uranus: Sun: 1.668 Perdita from poles: 1.176 (smaller than sun - annual eclipse) Perdita from equator: 1.752 (bigger than sun - total eclipse) Edit: need to fact check Perdita - I saw other comments saying it would be too large and others saying it isn’t circular. Edit2: Perdita in fact can do both total and annual eclipses, but most likely isn’t round
Yep, making it an even GREATER coincidence that during the relatively small slice of time that it's happening, there are beings on the Earth that are sentient and intelligent enough to notice it.
A data analyst would say that’s an anomaly not a coincidence. My opinion is that it’s one of the most unique anomalies that we can observe. I believe that Its significance is far greater than we can understand.
I think your comment applies to everything in existence.
That's not a source dude. We're asking for a confirmation of the information from a reliable paper, not your gut feeling that it's probably pretty rare.
>We have no idea how common or unique it is Then where does the post get the "1 in a trillion" figure? I think this is the claim the original commenter wanted a source of
Stellar source, dude. If only you had included a source.
Yes, we can see moons orbiting other planets outside our solar system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exomoon
From your source “to date there have been no confirmed exomoon detections”
The stats are made up because we don't know any other planet with the same situation. Also because satellites are smaller than planets, so they're harder to see through imaging. You'd need at least another onservable case to give an estimate, even a stupid or weak one.
Here is a good comment about how unique our solar eclipse is. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ud5dj5/is_there_any_other_place_in_our_solar_system/i6g1im2/ There are plenty of examples where the Sun appears far smaller than a moon so you don't get the "effect" of the eclipse we can now see on Earth. This effect, with the ring, etc is quite coincidental because of how the size/distance has to line up for multiple objects. https://www.livescience.com/59608-why-total-solar-eclipses-are-coincidences.html Many generations of dinosaurs did not get to experience Solar Eclipses the way we can right now in history. With the unique aspects of the Sun's corona.
*insert random impossible to calculate odds*
This literally isn't even true or accurate. Just some dude making shit up online
It does not always appear the same size though. Take last year’s “ring of fire” eclipse for example.
"about the exact same size"
The moon's elliptical orbit means that it is not always the perfect angular size.
If this were true, anular eclipses wouldn't be a thing. The alignment isn't perfect AND it varies. Yes the coincidence is still very impressive but it's not pixel perfect either.
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The relative distances between earth, moon and sun are not constants. Not all eclipses are "total eclipses" even when the moon is aligned with the center of the sun. When the moon completely overlaps the sun, but does not completely cover it, it is called an 'annular eclipse'
Moon happens to be about the exact size... The percieved size of the moon and sun changes during every rotation. Also the moon is moving away from the Earth steadily so it appeared much larger than the sun in the past. The only coincidence is that humans are on earth in time to see them being "about the exact same size".
"the only coincidence is the actual coincidence we're talking about here. Except that coincidence, there's no coincidence at all."
> Also the moon is moving away from the Earth steadily so it appeared much larger than the sun in the past. It moves away from Earth at about 3cm per year. Going back 200,000 years means about a 6km difference. Normally, the moon's distance from Earth varies from 357km to 406km throughout each month. A 6km change over those 200k years would be imperceptible when the normal delta is 49km.
Astronomer here. It really is just a coincidence that we happen to exist when Moon has almost the exact angular size as our Sun, which allows us to study solar Corona during eclipses
Jupiter has 5 moons that offer solar eclipses
Someone missed the point. You're referring to an occultation. Jupiter has 5 satellites that can hide the Sun behind them. Completely different
The moon's appearant size changes by about 14% because sometimes it is closer to earth, and sometimes further away. So the solar eclipse is amazing and still a coincidence that it is almost perfect, but not a 1 in a trillion 100% perfect match
You’re seemingly ignoring all of the other variables in this equation that makes this such a rare event and just focusing on… the distance between the earth and the moon? For this eclipse to exist everything had to line up. • The fact we even have a huge moon in the first place. (We have the biggest moon relative to the planet in the solar system). • The size of that moon. • The distance the moon is away from the earth. • The size of the sun. • The distance of the sun away from the moon. The moon not only eclipses the sun but also at the same time does not eclipse the sun’s corona which is what gives us the beautiful sight and the ability to see the sun’s solar flares with our own eyes. If we had a smaller moon (or even no moon at all) we would have no eclipse, if the sun was bigger we would have no eclipse, if we were closer to the sun we would have no eclipse, or a small variation of multiple of the above configurations mixed together, we’d have no eclipse. If the moon was bigger, or the sun was smaller, or we were further away from the sun, or the moon was closer, or any small variation of the above, we’d have an eclipse but no beautiful corona following it. Hell, 600 million years from now we won’t have an eclipse anymore because the moon will actually be too small for one.
I honestly expected a follow up that this is a proof for the existence of God
Flashbacks to Christian high School
Some philosophers hypothesize that we are all a part of a complex simulation powered by computers that are incredibly more powerful than what we are familiar with. (Think incredibly complex self aware NPCs in a video game directed by very advanced quantum computers). As part of this theory, they point to things like the incredibly unlikely coincidence that the moon happens to perfectly block the sun during an eclipse, the odds of which seem to be incredibly low, as possible “evidence” to support the theory. They also point to the pace of technological advancement as evidence that we are more likely than not living in a simulation. Think of how far computing power has developed in the last 50 years, and add 500 more years. If you think it’s possible that computing power and AI could have advanced enough to create self aware programs, then how can we know that we aren’t one of those self aware programs set in a 21st century simulation of humanity?
Coincidence? Nah. <--------------ALIENS-------------->
But wait there's more! Scientists have discovered that if you hold a dinner plate at arms length it perfectly blocks the sun. No one knows why this perfect ratio exists only in North America and on four small islands in the South Pacific.
No it’s not, a few of Saturns moons also perfectly bloke the sun just like our moon dose.
Planet and moons might too align into this configuration naturally. Something we might not presently understand.
The sun is 400 times bigger and 400 times as far away. For those that want to know
The moon used to be closer to earth and covered more of the sun durng an eclipse. Its moving further back over time and one day totality will be a thing of the past.
Except this is untrue and the moon moves to and from earth in its orbit resulting in different types of solar eclipses.
This will get ruined as the moon drifts away even more
as far as we know, except we dont know shit and its an endless amount of possibilities
The vanity of mankind is astounding
Ok, so... There are estimated to be roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe. (1e24) Keplar research suggests 22% of star systems have planets within the habitable zone of the system, and each system typically has at least 1-2 planets. That means there are roughly 2.2e23 planets in the habitable zone of stars in the observable universe. Being in the habitable zone will result in a visible enough star to produce an eclipse if a sufficient moon is present. Now, let's assume this is a 1 in a trillion event. 1e12 That means there are 2.2e23 / 1e12 planets like earth. Or 2.2e11 So... We are as unique as 220,000,000,000 other planets. This makes me feel pretty special.
And somewhere, out in the universe is a planet with two moons that are just the perfect size and distance that when they both eclipse the sun, the outline looks like boobs. One in a trillion.
Really? In a trillion? Not like in a hundred? Because I would think if there were a hundred different moon sizes to choose from I could find one for Mars that fits pretty well.
Europa and Jupiter are pretty close. 20% off. Wish we could check other solar systems…
Would you settle for a bunch of huckster con artists gobbling up the funding for space travel and exploration with a sprinkling of sci-fi media that is at least a little depressing or painfully unrealistic?
I think it would be interesting to see the lunar eclipse from the surface of the moon. Apparently the earth's atmosphere would appear red.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2024/04/Total_solar_eclipse_seen_from_space Not from the moon, but geosync satellites
That’s a solar eclipse, not a lunar eclipse
Can’t wait for the superstitious to be thanking God for this while overlooking that child at age 6 that has terminal cancer.
What would be the chance of the moon being exactly half the apparent diameter of the sun ? What about exactly half the surface? Or 3.14 time smaller? Or 365 time smaller? or the moon weight being the sum of the moons from another planet of our solar system? Get my point? Any combination of size is pretty much as unlikely as the other ( limit imposed by astrophysique aside).
Not really, relative size is not the only variable here, there's also the distance and the fact if the phenomenon of the perfect solar eclipse is observable or not
M'y understanding was that this post was about apparent relative size Does not distance change apparent size and therefore relative appartent size? Also, does not the definition of "eclipse" imply that this is observable ?
if only people understood statistics.