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they're all in the same galaxy (that sounds like something a Star Wars movie would say, but I hate Star Wars)

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Zackery Schumm

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1y ago
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14y ago

Because of their relative sizes and distances from the Earth the Moon and the Sun appear to be roughly the same size. This is why, when the moon passes in front of the Sun during a total solar eclipse, the Moon apparently almost completely covers the disk of the Sun.

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11y ago

The sun's diameter is about 400 times larger than the moon's diameter. But

the sun is also about 400 times farther from you than the moon is, and you

may have noticed that the farther an object is from you, the smaller it appears.

Making use of this interesting property, you can perform the following mystifying

demonstration. (Maybe you already have, at some time in the past.)

-- Go outside on a sunny day.

-- Hold your hand up in front of your face, make a closed fist, then extend only

your thumb. Also, extend your arm to its full length.

-- Adjust your position so that the end of your thumb covers the sun, and you can

comfortably look in the direction of the sun.

Now the sun and the end of your thumb appear the same size ! Do not be

confused or amazed. Simply compare the length of your arm with the distance

to the sun, and everything will be clear to you.

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13y ago

The only answer is that it's a fortunate accident.

-- The sun's diameter is roughly 400 times the moon's diameter.

-- The sun is roughly 400 times farther from us than the moon is.

There's no reason that those numbers have to be so close to each other.

They just are.

Annular and total solar eclipses as seen from earth can't be seen from any

other planet in the solar system.

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13y ago

The sun is much larger than the moon, but still the moon is just as big, why you ask? Its a coincidence.

As you know, objects that stand farther away look smaller than objects that are close to you.

The moon stands 384450 km from the earth and has a diameter of 3474.8 km

The sun stands 150 million km from the earth and has a diameter of 1392000 km

If you do 1392000/3474,8=400,6, is the times the moon can fit in the sun

If you do 150000000/384450= 390,16, is the times the distance moon-earth can fit in the distance sun-earth. These numbers are (in cosmic standards) almost the same.

Because of this relationships in distance and diameter, the moon looks just as big as the sun. Without this coincidence we wouldn't have had those spectacular total-eclipses, but as you have seen, the moon doesn't always completely blocks the sun, that because the numbers 390,16 and 400,6 aren't exactly the same. If the distance earth-sun would be bigger, the entire sun would be blocked during an eclipse. If the distance earth-sun would be smaller, the sun would seem bigger than the moon.

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9y ago

The internal structures of the Moon and Earth are similar because of their layers. The Moon has layers that include the crust, mantle, partially melted layer of the core, the liquid outer core, and the solid inner core. The internal structure of the Earth is also divided into layers, there is the Lithosphere (which contains the atmosphere, of which there is none on the Moon), the crust, the upper mantle, the lower mantle, the Asthenosphere, the liquid outer core and the solid inner core.

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6y ago

Even though the sun is much larger than the moon, it is much farther away--about 93 million miles away, as opposed to about 250,000 miles for the moon. By an odd coincidence, the ratios of distance and size are just right to make them appear the same size in the sky, so that during a solar eclipse, the moon completely blocks the sun. However, the moon is very slowly getting farther away from the earth--about 2 inches further each year. Astronomers predict that in about 600 million years, the moon will appear too small to completely block the sun.

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10y ago

They doappear to be almost exactly the same size in the sky. (That's why a solar eclipse is so spectacular.)

The Sun's diameteris about 400 times that of the Moon, but it is also about 400 times more distant.

There's no particular reason this should be the case, it just happens to be true. In other words, it's a coincidence. And it won't last forever: the Moon is moving further away from the Earth (very slowly), and by about 1.4 billion years from now it will be far enough away to always appear smaller than the Sun (and there will be no more total solar eclipses).

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14y ago

The match between the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon during a total eclipse is a coincidence. The Sun's distance from the Earth is about 400 times the Moon's distance, and the Sun's diameter is about 400 times the Moon's diameter. Because these ratios are approximately the same, the sizes of the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be approximately the same.

In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes. Total solar eclipses can be frightening for people who are unaware of their astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

Due to tidal acceleration, the orbit of the Moon around the Earth becomes approximately 3.8 cm more distant each year. It is estimated that in 600 million years, the distance from the Earth to the Moon will have increased by 23,500 km, meaning that it will no longer be able to completely cover the Sun's disk

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14y ago

no. the moon has no light of its own whatsoever, so the light we see on the moon is actually the sun reflecting against the moon.

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Q: How are the structure of the Moon and the structure of the Earth similar?
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