Thursday 2 July 2015

Spatial Surprises

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of watching the sun go down in the west under a clear blue sky, while in the east, a full moon rose. The two lights opposed and yet in union, both large and bright. Slowly the sun dipped and disappeared while the moon seemed to grow, large and clear against the darkening horizon; it seemed to be within touching distance. The Moon, however, is further away than we often realise. In fact, did you know, it is possible to fit all of the other planets in our solar system (including Pluto) between the Earth and the Moon? The average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,400km, and even with the other eight giant orbiters of the Sun squashed in between there would still be more than 2,000km to spare!

1 comment:

  1. .. just to think our forefathers travelled by the stars and moon...

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