If the Moon were replaced by other planets...

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Gary7, Apr 16, 2013.

  1. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Very cool video. Looks amazingly realistic.

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usYC_Z36rHw[/yt]
     
  2. SonOfMogh

    SonOfMogh Commander Red Shirt

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    That's awesome
     
  3. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Morlocks would hate it.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    I honestly would have figured Jupiter and Saturn to look a lot bigger than that.
     
  5. Finn

    Finn Bad Batch of TrekBBS Admiral

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    ^indeed. The proportions don't look right, especially Jupiter and Saturn.
     
  6. EnsignRedshirt

    EnsignRedshirt Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I was half expecting the Sun to suddenly pop up at the end and engulf everything.
     
  7. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    At the beginning of the clip the Earth's moon is a pretty small spot. They should have left it somewhere in the frame so your eyes would have a comparative reference point.
     
  8. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    ^Even so, I also expected those two to totally dominate the sky. Like so big you can't see the whole thing without turning your head. Either that's an inaccurate representation, or I have really underestimated how far away the moon is. Most likely the latter.
     
  9. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Some of it might be down to perspective. Sometimes bodies such as the Sun and the Moon can appear larger or smaller than they actually are depedning on what else you are looking at.

    Remember the Sun is something like 400x the diameter of the moon, they only look the same size because the sun is 400x further away from the Earth thn the moon.
     
  10. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    1. Download Celestia, install and launch.

    2. RETURN. "Moon" RETURN. G.

    3. Note the distance in the info display at upper left. Now use HOME and END to set your distance at 400,000 km, roughly the apogee of the Moon from Earth. (The default FOV is noted at lower right. You can change that if you wish, but the default view will do for this exercise.)

    4. Now go to Jupiter: 5. G.

    5. Again, set your distance to (approximately) 400,000 km. A super of the two images looks like this:

    [​IMG]

    (I have orbits turned on, which is what those lines are.)
     
  11. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'd hate to think what all that would do to our oceans. Though we'd be the moon rather than have a moon there. :p
     
  12. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Well, yeah, but in this case the whole point is that Jupiter and Saturn are supposedly the exact same distance as the moon. According to the scale presented here, I'm way less impressed with how big those planets are.

    Though part of me does wonder if the time of year and the sky might have played a role. The moon was presented as being quite tiny, yet there are definitely days throughout the year when the moon looks HUGE because of the way the light is bouncing around in the atmosphere.
     
  13. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    Jupiter's radius Rj is about 10.9 times the Earth's radius Re, which is about 3.7 time's the Moon's radius Rm, so the angle subtended at the same distance would be about 40 times greater for Jupiter than the Moon and the solid angle (apparent area subtended) would be about 1600 times greater.
     
  14. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    ^ figure up the difference in albedo and you could come up with how bright "Jupiter lit" nights on Earth would be. I'd imagine you could read a book by it.
     
  15. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    Jupiter is 88,736 miles in diameter and the moon is 2,160 miles in diameter, so the area difference is 1,688. The albedo of the moon is 0.12 and Jupiter is 0.52, so the nighttime full moon brightness would go up by 7,313. Bright moonlight is about 0.25 Lux (0.2 to 0.3), so with Jupiter we could have 1,800 Lux. Office lighting is usually 300 to 500 Lux and a TV studio is about 1,000 Lux, as is an overcast day. So it would be very bright indeed.
     
  16. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

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    I wouldn't worry too much about the oceans. The tidal effects of even a much closer moon would tear the crust apart.
     
  17. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    At a distance of 1 AU from the Sun, agreed. At the distance of Jupiter, about 5.2 AU, the luminous flux would be about 27 times less than that -- 67 lux. Bright sunlight on Earth at 1 AU is about 120,000 lux.

    Not disagreeing. I'm being didactic, possible too much so...
     
  18. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    Admittedly it would be easier to move the Earth to Jupiter than vice versa, but if the Earth was out at Jupiter's distance it would be too cold to stand outside making videos.

    However it does bring up the not unlikely possibility that in many of the solar systems where we've detected Jupiter size planets orbiting close in (because they're easy to detect), there could be Earth-size moons around the gas giants that would could be perfect for life. The people who live on them no doubt comment on what their sky would look like if they had a regular moon like normal people.
     
  19. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    At 384,000 km, I think the Earth would be within the orbit of Io, which interacts significantly with Jupiter's magnetosphere. It'd be outside the main radiation belts at 100,000 to 140,000 km though. Spacecraft tend to avoid going closer to Jupiter than 300,000 km.
     
  20. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think the person who created the video tried to be accurate on planetary dimensions versus distance, but rather sought out what would look visually appealing. And it's just about proximity, of course... as anything larger than the Earth would in turn make the Earth its moon. ;)