• CptEnder@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    3 months ago

    I mean she’s not wrong. Isn’t it, astronomically speaking, pretty rare that Earth has a moon that appears exactly the same relative size as its host star?

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      As far as we know it’s extremely rare and a bit of a mystery how it came to be that way. One theory is that it was the result of a collision with another protoplanet in the early formation of the solar system.

      • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        3 months ago

        But it isn’t a mystery at all. The moon is moving away from us. For billions of years the moon’s apparent size was larger than the sun. For billions of years later it will appear smaller. It’s simply a lucky coincidence we live in this moment in time, in that regard.

        • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          The “mystery” I was referring to was how we came to have such a large moon to begin with. It’s very unusual, and moons on other terrestrial planets are much smaller and probably formed through completely different ways than earth’s moon.

          • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            3 months ago

            That isn’t clear at all and I’m not even sure I agree, regardless. Hydrostatic equilibrium is a regularly occuring thing. No, I’m not looking up how regular. The Universe is mind-bogglingly enormous and everything is unusual. Have a good day.

        • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          I really think we should be called a twin planet system. It would be much more representative of our relationship with our satellite.