Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
When it comes to comprehending size, humans have a hard time with extremes, both small and large. If something is described as the size of two school busses, that is relatively easy to understand and appreciate. Describing something as the size of 50 Earths is tricky, because that is not a scale we are familiar with. In that case, it’s easier just to use a visual.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The moon has a radius of 1,737 km (1080 mi), which is roughly the driving distance from New York City to Memphis. It orbits the Earth at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi). Disregarding gravity for the most part, what would it look like if other planetary bodies orbited Earth with the same center point as the moon?
Filmmaker Brad Goodpeed created this amazing visual to show us what our night sky might look like if the moon were replaced:
Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.
