What if Other Planets Were As Close As The Moon?

What would the sky look like if you could swap the moon for each of the other planets? Ron Miller, a former art director for NASA, superimposed the planets in place of the moon to create images which show their true size if placed that near to Earth.

The Moon

distance-of-moon-from-earth-in-sky
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

What if a celestial body like Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, was as close to the Earth as our moon? Would it fill the night sky? Illustrator and author Ron Miller sought to answer the question using the reference photograph above.

It’s important to note that this is strictly a visual exercise. If a planet like Jupiter were actually as close to Earth as the Moon, its immense gravitation would wreak havoc on our planet. So for the gallery below, please temporarily suspend your disbelief and just imagine how amazing it would be to see a planet like Saturn in such incredible detail.

For reference, the Moon is about 386,243 km (240,000 miles) from Earth and has a diameter of approximately 3,476 km (2,160 miles). The Earth’s diameter is 12,742 km (7,918 miles)

Venus

if-venus-was-as-close-to-earth-as-the-moon
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

Mars

if-mars-was-as-close-to-earth-as-the-moon
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

Jupiter

What if Other Planets Were As Close As The Moon?
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

Saturn

if-saturn-was-as-close-to-earth-as-the-moon
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

Uranus

if-uranus-was-as-close-to-earth-as-the-moon
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

Neptune

if-neptune-was-as-close-to-earth-as-the-moon
Picture by Ron Miller @ Black Cat Studios

 

All The Planets Fit Between The Earth And The Moon

Did you know: you can fit all of the planets in our Solar System in between the Earth and the Moon?

All The Planets Fit Between The Earth And The Moon

To illustrate the distance between the Earth and the Moon, reddit user PerplexingPotato posted an image that placed the other seven planets in our solar system between them.

Planet Average Diameter (km)
Mercury 4,879
Venus 12,104
Mars 6,771
Jupiter 139,822
Saturn 116,464
Uranus 50,724
Neptune 49,244
Total 380,008

 

The average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km. And check it out, that leaves us with 4,392 km to spare.

So what could we do with the rest of that distance? Well, we could obviously fit Pluto into that slot. It’s around 2,300 km across. Which leaves us about 2,092 km to play with. We could fit one more dwarf planet in there (not Eris though, too big).

The amazing Wolfram-Alpha can make this calculation for you automatically: total diameter of the planets. Although, this includes the diameter of Earth too.

Source…

 
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How Big Is The Moon Really?

This video explains exactly how big the Moon really is and why it looks small in the sky despite being the fifth-largest moon in the Solar System.

Enjoy!

The moon seems small when looked up at in the night sky. But it’s really not small at all! So how big is our moon really? As educational group Kurzgesagt explains, our moon is actually the biggest in the solar system in relation to its planet and is much larger than Pluto. It may surprise you to learn that China, the US, Brazil, and Europe could all fit on the moon with a little room to spare.

Source…

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