What would our sky look like...

[J.Random]

...if there was another planet of the Solar system instead of the Moon?

...if there was some other star instead of the Sun?

[vger]

One of the first dreams I ever had as a child (that I can still remember) involved one or two large bodies visible in the evening sky. Much bigger than the moon and I'm pretty sure one of them was Jupiter.

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

Beautiful.

[lajoswinkler]

There is something deeply disturbing about Jupiter that close on the sky.

[GreeningGalaxy]

That would be so awesome if Earth were the moon of a gas giant.

The radiation would probably kill us, but assuming it did not, it would be amazing - not only because of the ever-changing view, but also because of the increased likelihood of another Earth-like body in an orbit not too far away.

[Tripod27]

for the first video, is the distance of the planets constant? and if it is, are the centers of the planets put in the same place as the center of the moon?

[Scotius]

That would be so awesome if Earth were the moon of a gas giant.

The radiation would probably kill us, but assuming it did not, it would be amazing - not only because of the ever-changing view, but also because of the increased likelihood of another Earth-like body in an orbit not too far away.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if it was Saturn. Compared to Jupiter that planet is quite tame. And those rings...man, i would spend a lot more of my time staring at he sky

[78stonewobble]

That would be so awesome if Earth were the moon of a gas giant.

The radiation would probably kill us, but assuming it did not, it would be amazing - not only because of the ever-changing view, but also because of the increased likelihood of another Earth-like body in an orbit not too far away.

Well if Earth had allways been a gas giant moon, life would probably just have evolved to cope with the radiation.

Hmmm, does anyone know of a similar visual representation... of the look of the milkyway from ie. one of the magellanic clouds?

[cantab]

From most of Saturn's moons the view of the rings is nothing much really, because the moons orbit at more or less the same inclination as the rings. The ring shadows on Saturn itself would be quite striking though, and no doubt lead to all sorts of myths and legends.

[RainDreamer]

Sometimes I kind of wonder if one day we will make a ring for earth just from all of the space trash.

[vger]

From most of Saturn's moons the view of the rings is nothing much really, because the moons orbit at more or less the same inclination as the rings. The ring shadows on Saturn itself would be quite striking though, and no doubt lead to all sorts of myths and legends.

Speaking of myths and legends though, if we were on a moon looking straight down the ring, I think everyone would be wondering for a few eons why the planet looks like something split it in half.

[Tripod27]

sometimes i kind of wonder if one day we will make a ring for earth just from all of the space trash.

so majestic

[J.Random]

Hmmm, does anyone know of a similar visual representation... of the look of the milkyway from ie. one of the magellanic clouds?

There's Space Engine - not sure if that's what you want.

[Drunken Hobo]

I think one of the most spectacular photos in the Solar System would be Mars from Phobos. You'd be on a rocky body just 9000 km away from Mars, and it'd look more than 4 times bigger than Jupiter does in that video. We have the technology to send a camera there, so let's get on it! A shame Fobos-Grunt failed, although it was going to land on the far side of Phobos.

And if you want to get silly, you have Metis' view of Jupiter, which would be more than nine times larger than Jupiter in that video and would take up roughly 1/9th of the visible sky. That might not sound that big, but our Moon only takes up about 1/1,000,000th of our night sky (Honestly, it really is that small. So is the Sun).

Once again real life manages to do better than Photoshop.

[cicatrix]

That Saturn! I know I'm talking about an impossibility since no gas giant can be within any habitable zone of any star but having such a gorgeous view on its rings would be a great thing.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

That Saturn! I know I'm talking about an impossibility since no gas giant can be within any habitable zone of any star but having such a gorgeous view on its rings would be a great thing.

There are plenty of gas giants in their stars' habitable zones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Giant_planets_in_the_habitable_zone

[peadar1987]

That would be so awesome if Earth were the moon of a gas giant.

The radiation would probably kill us, but assuming it did not, it would be amazing - not only because of the ever-changing view, but also because of the increased likelihood of another Earth-like body in an orbit not too far away.

Earth's atmosphere would block almost all of the radiation. Jupiter's radiation is mostly energetic particles trapped in its magnetic field, and X-rays produced by their interaction with matter. They are both soaked up pretty well by an atmosphere.

[78stonewobble]

There's Space Engine - not sure if that's what you want.

I was thinking more like an artists impression.

To quote from wikipedia:

From a viewpoint in the LMC, the Milky Way's total apparent magnitude would be −2.0â€â€over 14 times brighter than the LMC appears to us on Earthâ€â€and it would span about 36° across the sky, the width of over 70 full moons. Furthermore, because of the LMC's high galactic latitude, an observer there would get an oblique view of the entire galaxy, free from the interference of interstellar dust that makes studying in the Milky Way's plane difficult from Earth.[44] The Small Magellanic Cloud would be about magnitude 0.6, substantially brighter than the LMC appears to us.

[Dkmdlb]

our Moon only takes up about 1/1,000,000th of our night sky (Honestly, it really is that small. So is the Sun).

A large-ish pea held at arms length is big enough to completely block the moon (and the sun, obviously).

[Mazon Del]

In my periods of fantasizing about such things, one idea I've had for a while is to dig a hole in the ground, build a concrete & rebar dome, bury the whole thing (except for an access stairwell/elevator to the bottom of the dome) and build my home on the inside. One of the many upshots of doing so is that I can have a projector array on the house that shines on the inside of the dome, so I can set my sky to be whatever I want. I have long imagined getting up at night, shuffling to the bathroom and pausing to look out as Jupiter or Saturn slowly rises above the 'horizon'.

[adsii1970]

That would be so awesome if Earth were the moon of a gas giant.

The radiation would probably kill us, but assuming it did not, it would be amazing - not only because of the ever-changing view, but also because of the increased likelihood of another Earth-like body in an orbit not too far away.

Love your signature. It happens to come from one of my favorite movies. I'm upping your reputation.

[cicatrix]

There are plenty of gas giants in their stars' habitable zones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Giant_planets_in_the_habitable_zone

Perhaps, but nevertheless, such a planet should have a moon with an atmosphere, a metal core and not gavitationally locked in order for it to support life. Also, red dwarves are hardly to support life. Aside from that the look is spectacular.

Earth's atmosphere would block almost all of the radiation.

It's not atmosphere mostly, but magnetic field. That's why a habitable planet should have metal inside.

Edited January 26, 2015 by cicatrix

[peadar1987]

It's not atmosphere mostly, but magnetic field. That's why a habitable planet should have metal inside.

Nope, it's atmosphere. The magnetic field protects the atmosphere from being stripped into space by interactions with solar and cosmic radiation, but the atmosphere itself is what attenuates the radiation. The halving thickness of air is 150m (from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_protection#Shielding). That means no matter what the initial strength of the gamma radiation, it will be 1/2 of its initial strength after 150m. Other forms of radiation such as alpha, beta and X-rays will be attenuated even more.

I plugged this into a spreadsheet I made in Excel, and, accounting for the drop-off in air pressure, the radiation dose at sea level for earth in Io's orbit with an irradiation of 32Sv/day is 4.51*10^-15 Sv/hr.

For comparison, the lowest dose positively associated with any increased risk of cancer is 100mSv a year, or 1.14uSv/hour, year round. You don't start getting into these doses until above 8100 metres above sea level, so unless you literally lived n top of Mount Everest, you wouldn't even have a slightly increased risk of cancer.

Of course, the higher you go, the worse it gets. At 10,000 metres, we are at 12 times the dose rate linked to a cancer increase. Commercial airliners would have to fly at a lower altitude to avoid presenting a risk to their crew. Going into orbit would be very difficult indeed, you would receive a lethal dose of 5Sv in under 4 hours unless you were in an extremely well-shielded capsule.

[Duxwing]

In my periods of fantasizing about such things, one idea I've had for a while is to dig a hole in the ground, build a concrete & rebar dome, bury the whole thing (except for an access stairwell/elevator to the bottom of the dome) and build my home on the inside. One of the many upshots of doing so is that I can have a projector array on the house that shines on the inside of the dome, so I can set my sky to be whatever I want. I have long imagined getting up at night, shuffling to the bathroom and pausing to look out as Jupiter or Saturn slowly rises above the 'horizon'.

Your idea is feasible, especially should you build the dome above ground and from wood. Elevating your floor twenty centimeters over the foundation and filling the empty space with packing peanuts would enable seamlessly and silently integrated HVAC, electricity, water, and gas. Find a builder and lawyer, sell your house, and do it!

-Duxwing