+244 It's really cool that the sun is 400x bigger than the moon, but also 400x further away, so we can get perfect total eclipses, amirite?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why is this in religion?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Religion is one explanation.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's stupid...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Stupid? Since the heavens and the cosmos have been inspirational for divine mythology since prehistoric times, giving birth to the greatest classical deities in all of history, and continue to amaze and wonder billions of people around the world, posting such a curious and spectacular phenomenon in a religious themed group is "stupid?" I hope that your refutation goes deeper and that you can support your arguments with substantial reasoning, instead of believing that a only very obvious and literal posts belong in their category. I merely thought that those that have joined the group would find this as fascinating as I had, a decided to share it with like-minded people. Sorry if that was unintelligent and makes me look like a two-bit slug without the capacity to generate thought.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You can relate anything to religion that way. This isn't a religious post

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It is to me. I simply left that part out so that the voters can substitute their own explanations. If you don't like it, then my all means report me for misusing the tools of the site, and get it changed. I'm keeping it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm gonna say I agree, many societies across time have Gods based on the sun. You got Sol and Freyr (Norse), Garuda and Surya (Hindu), Amaterasu (Japanese). Some may be more outdated than others but religions do tend to stick around for a long time.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Hyperion, Apollo and Helios.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yah the Greeks needed to over achieve by having 3 =P

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This is definitely a religious post. Actually, I just found out about this a few days ago, and thought it was really interesting. The Earth is perfectly designed for humans to be able to observe things. That's not even to mention that it is perfectly and precisely fine-tuned to permit life.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

"That's not even to mention that it is perfectly and precisely fine-tuned to permit life." Actually if you believed in Evolution, you can't say that for certain because it might be the opposite ; humans were fined tuned for Earth.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Very true, but that's not the only fine tuning. For example, if the rate of expansion of the universe were slightly slower, the universe would collapse in on itself. If it were expanding a little faster, then matter wouldn't be able to form. From Stephen Hawking's book, "If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have collapsed before it ever reached its present size."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This is not religious post, it's a matter of cosmology. And there is no god btw

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You say that like you know for a fact. Please explain.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I read that as "This is not a religious post, it's a matter of cosmetology."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

*Facepalm. A total eclipse occurs when the moon gets in the way of the sun and casts its shadow where you are, giving the appearance that they're the same size.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Simply not true. They always appear the same size... Think about it. What seems to take up more part of the sky? The Sun at day or the moon at night? Or just look it up...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Hold up a nickel and it'll appear to cover the sun too.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

At just the right distance that is. And hold it next to the sun and it will appear the same size also... The difference in actual size is made up for by the distance... I don't think we're on the same page here. Of course the moon and sun aren't the same size, but their apparent size is EXACTLY the same on any day of the week, which allows for perfect eclipses to occur.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Sorry, I'm not in the habit of staring at the sun to compare it to the moon.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Your on crack you can fit 72 million moons in the sun

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm talking about diameter not volume, which is what matters here.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Smooth. If you can fit 72 MILLION moons in the sun how is the sun 400 times bigger than the moon? See the flaw in your logic there sport?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Again, DIAMETER! Think about how many quarters it will take to make a line across the surface of your TV. Then think about how many quarters it will take to fill your TV... only the former matters when you are comparing relative sizes in the night sky. Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

by Anonymous 12 years ago

72 MILLION! How are you not comprehending this?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I must be comprehending something else entirely...

by Anonymous 12 years ago