Or is there a scientific explaination for this to occur. If you were on Jupiter, would its moons appear to be the same size as the sun too?
2006-09-06 01:08:27 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It is just a coincidence, which leads to a fantastic sight that is available to viewers on Earth. The Moon is moving slowly away from Earth, and in about 600 million years will have a small enough apparent size that the Sun's corona will no longer be visible during an eclipse; all eclipses will be annular at greatest coverage, and the total eclipse as we know it will be extinct.
From Mars, its moons appear much smaller than the Sun, so they transit the Sun as dark spots. From Pluto, it's companion Charon is much larger than the Sun, and occults it, completely hiding it from view, for relatively long periods of time. Jupiter's moons provide a combination of those two conditions.
2006-09-06 01:37:17 · answer #1 · answered by DavidK93 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Actually, no it doesn't. The relative sizes of the Sun and Moon change based on what time of the year it is, since we move closer to and further from the Sun during the course of a year. Which lead to things like the 'ring of fire' you see during some solar eclipses, when the Moon doesn't cover all of the Sun. The close relative size is yes, a coincidence. We know the Earth can support life because we're here. There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and most appear to have planets, and many will have planets at the right distance to support Earth-like life. They're just really far away from us, so we don't know for sure.
2016-03-27 00:07:06 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To refute an incorrect answer earlier, the moon's apparent size is not always bigger than the sun's. The moon's path around the sun takes it sometimes closer to the earth (in which case the moon appears larger) and sometimes farther away (in which the moon appears smaller) and thus we can have both a total solar eclipse and also an annular solar eclipse respectively.
We are truely fortunate that the moon and the sun are at such close apparent sizes. Imagine for a moment the things that we may not have discovered if it were not so.
As for whether or not it is purely coincidence or by design, I will leave it up to you to decide.
2006-09-06 05:31:53 · answer #3 · answered by sparc77 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The moon appears as a different size depending on how far away it is. I have seen the moon look very large and other times smaller. The sun is the same way, but it is much larger than the moon and it is much farther away so it could look to be the same size depending on how far away it is when you see it. Our orbit around the sun and the moons orbit around us is not a perfect circle therefore it can appear different sizes.
2006-09-06 01:16:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's a pure coincidence. We are lucky to be able to often have full solar eclipses with the corona (the sun's atmosphere beyond the surface) showing.
this is becase the Moon is, relative to its planet, a very large satellite.
other beings on other planets probably most ofter either see small moons transiting in front of the star but covering just a bit of it, or else have moons completely hiding the star including its corona which makes for a less interesting show I guess.
on the other hand most of those planets will most probably have more than just one moon which would give more interesting night skies. And some may even orbit dual stars which would cause other pretty effects ;-)
2006-09-06 02:22:16 · answer #5 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes it is a complete coincidence. We do find it useful to study the corona and general relativity during solar eclipses. It's not perfect - due to variation in the orbit of the moon, sometimes we see a total eclipse, sometimes an annular (ring) eclipse. Does not work on Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto.
2006-09-06 01:39:14 · answer #6 · answered by Tekguy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually, the moon appears much bigger, the sun seems larger than it really is because it is so bright. You can tell during an total eclipse of the sun, if they were the same size, the total eclipse would last less than a second.
2006-09-06 01:11:47 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
dude.. sun is not the same size in appearance to moon even from earth.. check it out again...
2006-09-06 01:15:07 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Is it a coincidence that the moon is 240,000 miles away and the sun is 93,000,000 miles away?
D'ya think that may have sumpin ta do with it?
2006-09-06 01:15:29 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋