In crafting ‘Scale’, the video that unexpectedly went viral the other night, I attempted to give an accurate representation of what certain planets would look like if they orbited the earth at the same distance as the moon. Here it is:
I’m Bad at Math
NOTE: Since this topic seems to continue to attract traffic, read this article’s follow-up, posted here.
Also read Jessica Palmer’s excellent write-up about Scale here. (from the popular blog Bioephemera)
I changed my mind – I’m going to update the video to remove the landscape.
i’m glad to see my picture here
and yes, you are right, it is misleading, too! Stellarium draws luminous halo around small and bright objects (for comparing their relative brightness – this is astronomy software and most objects are stars…). this means that the true size of the moon, mercury and mars is smaller. and especially sun, which got an enormous halo for its exceptional brightness. so this picture only compares the relative size of big planets and the whole sky, but not the moon. perhaps i should check in the application if the halo can be disabled to create the correct view.on the other hand, even the mathematically correct view wont tell us how we would perceive the huge planet on the sky. like you said, we see the moon much larger than 1/2 degree, especially when it is close to the horizon. but i don’t think that this effect would hold for large sky objects. after all, we see such objects every day – they are clouds! and a single 21 degrees wide cloud never creates an illusion to cover the whole sky. it’s probably just small objects on empty background that distort our perception in such way(?)huge Jupiter on the sky would also create another effect you could use for your next video: it would be bright enough to turn the night into day! so if you include the landscape, it could contribute to the dramatic effect by changing colors, and of course the sky would not be black, too.
Hey Brad, saw you’re video on theawesomer.com which I frequently visit. Surprised a little that I saw you’re video on that site but not really, because they show off awesome stuff on the web. Stumbled upon your blog from there, the interweb is such a small world. Anywho just wanted to drop by and say hello.Terry
Hey Brad,I absolutely loved your video. The imagery and music combine into an amazingly powerful piece of work. Now, although the heavens fascinate me, I am no astronomer, and I did not come here to discuss the correctness of the scales you’ve used or anything like that; I’d simply like to know what music you used on the background. It’s incredible, I’d love to buy that artist’s work. Cheers,Sander
<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Hi Sander. It’s a song called ‘Where We’re Calling From’ by ‘Doves’, off their album ‘The Last Broadcast’. </div><div><br></div><div>I think. Have a check and let me know. I’m mobile right now. </div><div><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <div style="width: 600px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" class="PosterousEmail"></div></div></body></html>
So you and Szuu are both saying that the sun in the moons orbit would appear to be about the same size? I thought the Sun was the largest object in our solar system and thus would appear larger than either Jupiter or Saturn.
No, if the Sun was at the same distance as the moon it would dwarf everything. <shudder>We just meant that the way things actually look in the sky the sun and moon both ‘appear’ to be the same angular size. The sun is WAAAAY bigger, but also way further away.
Yes, that’s it. Found it, thanks a lot!
Nicely done, and what a fun exploration. Getting scale correct on planetary observations is tricky as you and others have noted. I once modeled the Jovian and Mars moon systems in 3D Studio Max, using the best available surface maps of the time, and discovered that rendering software doesn’t quite account for accurate distances of this magnitude. Still, it made for some amazing images.Next – Saturn from Earth! Cheers!
if the sun was placed on the moon orbit then… we would not see anything, because the radius of the sun is bigger than earth-moon distance! (so our planet would be swallowed by the ocean of thermonuclear fire)
I think the Earth rotates in the other direction, e.g, it gets dark (or light)on the East side of the continent first and progresses towards the West.
<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>You’re absolutely right. All the planets pictured do. I caught it afterwards. </div><div><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <div style="width: 600px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" class="PosterousEmail"></div></div></body></html>
Regardless, I still found it beautiful and fascinating, and was left wanting to see all the planets *grin*Great job!
Great work with Scale. Don’t care whether it’s accurate, I’ll take it as what if Jupiter broke orbit and came straight for us
Lovely but totally unrealistic, at least when it comes for Neptune and Jupiter.Having them so close to Earth, their size and gravity would smash the planet and cover us in deadly electric currents.
Nice piece of art. I realy liked how small the earth made me feel next to Jupiter. I don’t care if the sky is accurate because the image showed me a realistic moon! My own imagination could do the rest if it would appear in the real sky. The image szuu send is boring
Keep it up! Greeting from the Netherlands
The moon looks bigger on the horizon because of the quick assumptions of our brains: something lower is closer than something higher, and closer things are bigger. So the big ol’ yellow moon on the horizon is bigger than the brilliant white moon overhead.
The moon looks bigger on the horizon because of the quick assumptions of our brains: something lower is closer than something higher, and closer things are bigger. So the big ol’ yellow moon on the horizon is bigger than the brilliant white moon overhead.
Brad, I’d say your thoughtful and humble treatise on the value of the skeptical ethic just makes this video that much more important. Well done on all counts. The video, despite the technical discrepancies– even because of them, due to how you handled it– is a treat for your fellow amateur astronomers like me.
Jamie, thank you very much. Truly.
Brilliant video!!! I just completed a research project on the solar system with my 2nd graders and I showed them your video. They loved it! We even wanted to see more
Thank you!Love the music 
Hi Brad, I watched this video 5 or 6 times the other day, before Scalegate broke out, and I just came back to it to watch it again, and I have to say, I appreciate the detailed explanation and correction and not wanting to misinform, and I still really love the video . There is very little imagery that helps exercise the imagination about the dimensions of the solar system, the galaxy, the universe. I liked the landscape because it was familiar and I could feel myself standing outside witnessing the spectacle of the impromptu planet parade. It’s so easy for most people to feel locked out learning about the universe because of the highly mathematical and technical components. I think you’re on to something really good.
Thanks Squeegee, come on back to the blog for more! You sound like the kind of person I’ve been trying to reach on this rag for over a year now.I can’t say how much of it will be about Astronomy because I sort of make it up as I go, but I do attempt to deal in things that make us imagine. I know how terribly new-age it must sound when I say this sort of thing, but here goes anyway: the world around us is beautiful, complex, yet indifferent. Somewhere in that mix of characteristics is something worth both examining and being awed by.How dare we ignore it, as so many seem to?
@Mizz Wow, THAT makes me feel nice. I’m absolutely thrilled to hear it. Thank you!
Hello, There ‘s something wrong on szuu’s image: The moon is so minute that ecclipse are no longer possible.Moon must be the size of the sun (approximately).positively.
I just had the thought that a video showing Jupiter viewed from Callisto could be interesting. There are several places in the Solar System that we could colonize with little difficulty (relatively little compared to other places that is):MoonVenus (in the clouds)MarsCeresAsteroidsCallisto – because that’s the only Galilean moon where Jupiter’s radiation won’t kill us. On the other hand it’s not very well-known as a potential place to inhabit, but is the only one of these destinations that would have a fantastic view. Since Jupiter from your video seems to have impressed everyone, the view from one of the moons around Jupiter that we could colonize would be nice. It’s still tidally locked even at that distance (1.8 million km) so Jupiter would never rise or set. On top of that Ganymede would get within a million km every once in a while so those on the surface would never lack for entertainment.
Wow… I watched this 5 times in a row, and was in awe every time. very well done. I do like it better with no foreground… Larger field of view would be cool, but I know you were going for the wow effect and.. you got it.! Nice piece of art.
I found your video absolutely awesome, no matter what licenses you took. The only thing I didn’t like was that it ended too soon … I’d love to see all the other planets added as well (and I’m old-school so don’t forget to include Pluto). Should you have any changes or additions to this video, please e-mail me. I’d really love to see it.
Great work! Are the planets in the video positioned such that their centers are where the moon’s center is, or their earth-side surfaces are at the point the moon’s earth-side surface is?
<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>The former!</div><div><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <div style="width: 600px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" class="PosterousEmail"></div></div></body></html>
Put the foreground in, fix planet scales, add the Sun after Jupiter. Fixed
Brad, love the piece, and especially love your humility about the accuracy.Thought you might also enjoy this. If you think Jupiter is big, drag the slider to the right in this interactive piece:http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/Don't forget to check out the left side for the other end of the big/small spectrum.
@Anon, the planets scales are correct, it was just that with the foreground in it made the amount of sky we’re looking at seem bigger. As a piece of art however I wouldn’t want to ‘zoom out’ to show more sky, because then the moon, our starting reference point, would ‘feel’ unnaturally small. Again, we don’t see the whole sky at the same time, and even though our eyes have a wider field of view than the narrow slice depicted in this piece, my foremost concern was to make it ‘feel’ like what you’d experience. You simply have to imagine more sky around what you’re looking at.@Gary I’ve seen that before, and it’s wonderful. What floors me is the difference between the planck length and the smallest particles. Amazing.
Neil deGrasse Tyson just linked to you on Twitter. I think that means you’re forgiven
I know, right! Did anyone see him on Bill Maher the other day? Dude’s a modern day science rock-star!
Brad,This is a great and a great piece of artistry that communicates visually something that most people (and most students) don’t understand and would benefit from. That being said, no one has mentioned this (that I have seen), but you have the earth rotating in the wrong direction. The rotation shown, spinning from right to left, would have the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. I noticed this because I’m sensitive to it, having bought a piece of clip video in the past with the same mistake. I used it on a television program (oops). A video student pointed out that I could reverse directions in most editing programs, which I did. In the solar system, there are retrograde rotations (in the reverse direction from the rest) but earth is not one of them. Simple directional mistake that does not take away from the purpose or beauty of your work.
<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Hi Hall, thanks for the kind words. It actually has been mentioned on the Vimeo page, but not before I realized it myself. Planets in our solar system (except Venus, which orbits opposite and Uranus, which rolls along on it’s side) rotate in a way that can be remembered with the ‘right hand rule’: point your right thumb up to represent the north pole, and the planets rotate in the direction your fingers curl. </div><div><br></div><div>Why I forgot that when doing this I have no idea, but once I realized it I just figured I’d fix it later. I had no expectation that it would go viral, but once it did I figured the discussion about such errors was of more value than fixing it. </div><div><br></div><div>Plus, I’m just lazy.
</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers!</div><div><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <div style="width: 600px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" class="PosterousEmail"></div></div></body></html>
Brad:How about making one with the Red Gas Giant, with the Dwarf Star, with Nibiru, and with a Neutron Star and the electromagnetic activity? THAT would go around the world right now; think about it, and email me the link when you put it up on You Tube; I’m pretty sure you CAN and WILL do this video; and in my opinion, this video of the planets from the moon’s distance is awesome!!