Spyke

It's incomprehensibly special and rare that our moon amd star are just the right size and just the right distance away for us to experience almost perfect eclipses.

72
lemmy.ml

I've been lucky enough to see a complete solar eclipse 2 times. It's even more special because it won't be able to do that forever and it didn't always either. Genuinely one of the coolest parts of our planet rn.

27
Denjinreply
feddit.uk

That, and the, y'know, life supporting-ness.

15

Yeah, but no one seems to care about that minor detail.

4
lemmy.world

No wonder the demons in Doom came to attack the base on Phobos. Janky ass turd of a moon

30
lemmy.zip

Can confirm. Earths total eclipses are wild. Most otherworldly spectacle I will witness in my life.

22
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I thought moons & planets always appear generally round from a distance. This lumpy irregularly-shaped Phobos looks like an asteroid.

17
lemmy.nz

Both Mars' moons (Phobos and Deimos) are asteroids. They're really small.

"Hydrostatic equilibrium" is the term (I think) for when a body is massive enough for its gravity to pull it into a spheroid. E.g. Ceres is about 950km in diameter and is 'round'.

16

Both Mars’ moons (Phobos and Deimos) are asteroids. They’re really small.

And another W for earth, get fucked mars. Is he even trying?

10
JennaR8rreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Hmm today I learned that asteroids can also be moons! Was it just floating around freely like any other asteroid until it got caught into the orbit of Mars, then got stuck there forever?

4

Probably. It does happen.

Fun fact. Triton, Neptune's largest moon, orbits the wrong way which means it was gravitationally captured by Neptune at some point.

5
lemmy.curiana.net

Banks had an idea that our total solar eclipse is unique on a galactic scale and aliens for sure come to Earth to see it. So if you want to find aliens you have to monitor solar eclipse sites. I wonder is any government agency actually did it.

13
lemmy.nz

Really weird book that one, even for Banks. Tangents or is it Inversions?

3

Transitions I believe. I think it's the last or one of the last ones he wrote (he died and 2013 and in the book he mentions 2008 crisis). Weakest of his books I've read. Don't know if he didn't had the time to finish it or something but it was just full of holes.

2

My dumb arse for about five seconds "damn I didn't know Luna wasn't so round when viewed from mars".

5

You reached the end