Monday, June 12, 2006
The eclipse lottery
sciences
The moon turns around the Earth in 29 days. Thanks to this orbital mechanism, we can see a total eclipse of the sun almost every 20 months, from anywhere on the Earth. Moreover, the moon has the perfect size and is at the perfect distance so the eclipse is as beautiful as we know.This is not the only coincidence.
Since there are more than 150 moons and 8 others planets in our solar system, we could imagine that this phenomenon exists everywhere.
False !
At the eclipse lottery, we're the only winners.
Mercury and Venus, if we don't look at the mortal atmosphere, would be good places for an eclipse: the sun is big in the sky. But they have no moon. Checked.
The others planets have a lot of moons but all too small or too big. For example, the 4 moons of Jupiter hide absolutely nothing. When they arrive in front of the sun, you can't see anything: no more sun, no luminous ring, nothing!
Janus, the satellite of Saturn, could be a good candidate... but it has the shape of a potato and it's quite hugly. Moreover, because of its speed, the phenomenon last less than 10 seconds.
Finally, the moons of Uranus have a good size but they are ugly, too, and the sun, viewed from Uranus, is just a small luminous pinhead. Like a star for us.
At the eclipse lottery, we're the only winners.
Mercury and Venus, if we don't look at the mortal atmosphere, would be good places for an eclipse: the sun is big in the sky. But they have no moon. Checked.
The others planets have a lot of moons but all too small or too big. For example, the 4 moons of Jupiter hide absolutely nothing. When they arrive in front of the sun, you can't see anything: no more sun, no luminous ring, nothing!
Janus, the satellite of Saturn, could be a good candidate... but it has the shape of a potato and it's quite hugly. Moreover, because of its speed, the phenomenon last less than 10 seconds.
Finally, the moons of Uranus have a good size but they are ugly, too, and the sun, viewed from Uranus, is just a small luminous pinhead. Like a star for us.
source : space.com, end of April.
Labels: sciences
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