Long way home

[growingvegetables]

my favorite pictures from space are among the ones that look least interesting… until you understand what you’re seeing

Neat - and thank you. Love this kinda stuff.

I lived in Senegal for 5 years - and me 'n kids used to sleep on the roof of our house just to look up into space, and wonder. Truly, truly black African nights. Nothing to beat that magic. "Perspective".

Bit of a change from when my kids first arrived there! I took them out on their third night, just to see the sky - and they were terrified; refused to get out of the car to look at the stars

 

[Night Train]

I remember seeing Carl Sagan in TV showing a photo of the Earth taken from Voyager when it was nearing the edge of our solar system.
The Earth was just decernable as one blue pixal.

 

[Arch]

It drives to distraction the self enforced ignorance of some people... a friend of mine, a very intelligent bloke is cursed with being 'born again'.. so he dismisses most of physics and geology because it doesn't fit his point of view.

I keep trying to get through to him that 'created in 6 days' doesn't mean 6x24 hours, just the same as queen Elizabeth's day describes the period of her reign and not a single 24 hour day in her life. If I could get through to him that the earth was created in 6 periods of time which lasted many millions of years... and the 6,000 years is the period between adam & eve and the present day... I'd be more comfortable with his faith.

Creation and the big bang theory are very similar, yet they refuse to recognise the parallels between the two theories.

Why? If he wants to believe it, let him. He's probably happy as he is.

 

[TheDoctor]

It's a long way to Jupiter and then it is still within our own galaxy.

It's within our own solar system too!!!

 

[TheDoctor]

just done some adding up...

diameter of earth is just shy of 13,000 km

distance of the earth to moon is between 356,000 and 406,000 km

which means the distance from the earth to moon is between 27 and 31 earth diameters.

so if anything it looks a bit close


note to pedants... distances are approximate

I agree with the working, but if that probe is going to Jupiter, then it's in the same plane as Earth, and the Moon's orbit around Earth.
The moon could be 31 diameters off to one side or other, or directly in line with Earth (in front or behind) or anywhere in between.
I'm trying to think of an easy way of visualising this.
Got it.
Put two jam tarts (say) on a plate - one in the middle, one on the rim. Put the plate on a table, then put your head on the table. Your viewpoint is now in the same plane as the plate. Now turn the plate round slowly. The tarts stay the same distance apart, but they appear to get closer together, till one goes behind the other. That's what's going on with the photo, and that's why the moon looks a bit close.

Repeat this a few times till it's obvious, or you run out of cakey goodness