We all know since childhood that moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, but have you ever imagined what our sky will look like if the moon gets replaced by the other planets of our solar system? What a sight it will be if we got to see Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn instead of Moon?? (Of course we had to ignore for some times thoughts about tides and gravitation, but that�s the most interesting part of plunging in the pool of imagination without any limitations).
So what would we see if the moon gets replaced with Mars? This red planet named after Roman god of war is almost twice the size of the Moon, so it would appear twice as big in the Earth's sky. The surface of this planet which was earlier visible only through telescopes could now be seen just with our naked eyes. We would be able to see some interesting features like Vallis Marineris and Olympus Mons that are formed by the movement of dust storms across the planet. We would also be able to see the ice caps grow and shrink during the changing seasons.
Venus, the second planet from the Sun is three and a half times larger than the Moon. It would look as large in the sky as the Earth appeared to the Apollo astronauts while taking a walk on the surface of the Moon. Venus reflects six times more light than the Moon and it reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise and after sunset, for which reason it has been referred to by ancient cultures as the Morning Star or Evening Star. It will be an amazingly bright object in the sky and the night skies would seem as bright as daylight.
Now the Blue planet, Neptune which is more than fourteen times larger than the Moon- you can imagine how gigantic it will look on the earth�s sky. In the daytime also this enormous blue balloon will dominate over the sun and the earth would come under the shadow for over an hour and half.
Saturn, which is almost 35 times larger than the Moon, this golden globe would cover nearly 18 degrees of the sky. In fact, it will be appropriate to call ourselves the satellite of Saturn than the other way around.
Now the last and king of all� Jupiter, which is forty times larger than the Moon. It would stretch 20 degrees across the sky. It will be so huge that we will not able to see the north and south poles of the planet. To visualize Jupiter taking the place of our Moon, we really have to use our imaginations.
The earth would be subject to the same tidal stresses caused by Jupiter's immense gravitation. Imagining life is little difficult as we will be in the midst of Jupiter's deadly radiation field. But as I said in the beginning, we have to make some allowances for imagination!
[Courtesy: Ron Miller Blog, via~www.io9.com]
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| View of Moon(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
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| View of Mars(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
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| View of Venus(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
Now the Blue planet, Neptune which is more than fourteen times larger than the Moon- you can imagine how gigantic it will look on the earth�s sky. In the daytime also this enormous blue balloon will dominate over the sun and the earth would come under the shadow for over an hour and half.
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| View of Neptune(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
Saturn, which is almost 35 times larger than the Moon, this golden globe would cover nearly 18 degrees of the sky. In fact, it will be appropriate to call ourselves the satellite of Saturn than the other way around.
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| View of Saturn(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
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| View of Jupiter(View full size image~ via www.io9.com) |
[Courtesy: Ron Miller Blog, via~www.io9.com]
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