What If the Planets Became Our Moon

the moon is the earth's closest space neighbor and its only natural satellite it likely formed when a huge mars-sized object crashed into our planet billions of years ago i wasn't around then this catastrophe turned earth into a scorching ball of molten rock it also pushed some material into its orbit creating the moon now this heavily cratered sphere moves around our planet this causes high and low tides around the globe a bit more than one-fourth the size of earth it's the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system the moon has several phases for example new full or crescent moon first and last quarter but whatever the satellite looks like you can always find it in the night sky and sometimes even during the day but imagine waking up at night and noticing that the moon looks somewhat different than usual it seems brighter and bigger it's hardly noticeable especially when you're half asleep you go back to bed unaware that instead of the moon you've just seen mercury close up this planet the nearest to the sun is similar to our natural satellite its surface is littered with craters left by space rocks mercury is about two-fifths the size of our planet but it's still a bit larger than the moon that's why the planet would have a greater influence on earth nights would become brighter high tides would become higher and low tides what do you think lower yup the lunar cycle that's the time the moon or rather mercury now needs to go through all the phases would become 14 hours shorter but all in all such a replacement wouldn't have any drastic consequences for our planet but then how about venus what if instead of the familiar satellite we swap in the third brightest natural object after the sun and the moon it's often called earth's sister planet because their mass and size are nearly the same venus would be as large in our sky as earth once appeared to the apollo astronauts when they looked at it from the moon surface the morning star would be much brighter than the moon for one thing the planet reflects six times more sunlight plus it would occupy an area at least 16 times larger that's why nights on earth would be as bright as early twilight now if you looked at venus you'd spot vague swirling patterns in the planet's yellowish white cloud cover venus wouldn't become earth satellite the two planets would likely orbit around their common center of mass and this orbit would be quite eccentric like me but if venus moved with the same speed as the moon has now the two planets would crash into each other in the nearest future uh-oh okay let's pull another switcheroo if mars was up there in the sky instead of the moon you'd surely notice it the planet's disk would look radish oops sorry make that reddish and it would be almost twice the moon's size even without a telescope you'd be able to marvel at its unusual color and dark spots on its surface and even if you didn't see the red planet you'd still feel something unusual mars is half of earth's size but several times larger than the moon replacing a smaller space body with a much bigger one would upset the delicate balance on our planet if you were unlucky to be at the seaside when mars took the moon's place you'd have to evacuate as soon as possible massive waves would rise in the oceans under martian influence they would crash against the shoreline like the largest tsunamis mars would be reflecting more sunlight than the moon nights would be lighter terrestrial landscapes would have an eerie red tint and you'd be able to admire the tallest mountain in the solar system olympus mons through a telescope mars isn't large enough to change the earth's orbit dramatically but with time the two planets would probably begin to orbit each other creating a binary planet system and since mars would literally be next door voyages to this planet would become a reality okay now think really big if jupiter replaced the moon earth as an independent planet wouldn't exist anymore it would instantly turn into another moon of the largest planet in the solar system the only positive moment in this transformation people would have an awesome sky view jupiter is dozens of times larger than the moon a gigantic beautifully striped sphere would cover nearly all the horizon if you had time to enjoy the show you'd see yellow brown red and white clouds floating in jupiter's atmosphere sadly the gas giant's gravitational pull would instantly cause severe earthquakes volcanic eruptions and tsunamis earth's mantle and crust would be drawn toward jupiter which would break the planet apart it'd be stretched and compressed with such force that its surface would bulge back and forth by more than 300 feet unfortunately earth speed is only 10 of the speed needed for us to stay in jupiter's orbit that's why our sluggish planet would crash into the gas giant in less than a day well that sounds unpleasant so let's not do that now if saturn were to replace the moon it would be a sight to behold the planet is more than 35 times larger than our satellite it means the giant golden globe would cover 18 degrees of the sky and its rings would stretch even further from horizon to horizon hey if you like it then you should have put a ring on it earth would be a bit further away from the gas giant than its own moon dion and since saturn is way more powerful than our planet earth would turn into its satellite not the other way around unfortunately earth's rotational speed wouldn't be enough to keep up and we'd most likely crash into the much larger planet within a day or two but before burning up in saturn's atmosphere we'd have to pass through its magnificent rings they're made up of pieces of comets asteroids and shattered moons it wouldn't be an easy feat to get through this space debris plus our planet would have to avoid saturn's moons all 53 of them but what if the fall didn't happen and earth did turn into saturn's 54th moon then the gas giant's gravitational pull would lead to massive tectonic shifts all over our globe they would be tearing the planet's crust apart until there's nothing left not good either both uranus and neptune are ice giants these planets are the same size larger than earth but smaller than saturn and jupiter they both have icy interiors deep atmospheres and similar color very beautiful bluish green if either of these planets replace the moon the consequences would be the same so let's flip a coin okay it would be neptune you'd see in the sky one day neptune is 14 times larger than the moon the planet would look like a bright blue hot air balloon in the sky not only at night but during the day too it would appear to be 15 times larger than the sun if everything else remained the same a solar eclipse would seem to continue for ages once the sun vanished behind neptune's edge our planet would be plunged into complete darkness for no less than an hour and a half neptune is 17 times the mass of earth and its gravitational pull is much stronger that's why our planet would end up as a satellite yep again it would orbit neptune slightly further than its own largest moon triton by the way there would be a great risk of earth colliding with this space body but let's assume we were lucky enough not to cross path with neptune satellites even so there would be more than enough problems on our hands tides on our planet would become a thousand times more powerful than those caused by the moon neptune's gravitational force wouldn't pull earth apart but it would heat our planet up the seismic activity would increase setting off earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and probably louse up the internet too but the most dramatic scenario would happen should the moon get replaced by the sun see for yourself the distance between earth and its natural satellite is about 240 000 miles and there are between 28 and 43 million miles between the sun and mercury even though this distance is huge mercury is a scorched deserted place it has enormous temperature differences from minus 280 at night to 800 degrees during the day in other words if the sun suddenly appeared as close to earth as the moon it would instantly burn everything off the planet's surface you wouldn't even have a millisecond to wow at a blazing ball of plasma covering the whole sky bring your marshmallows solar flares are much longer than the earth's diameter just one of them would be enough to melt the planet's crust burn its atmosphere and wipe all forms of life off the face of the earth so given that i'll bet those chores around the house you've been putting off don't seem so bad now do they

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 1,401,295

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Keywords: bright side, brightside, bright side what if, what would happen if, strange what if questions, best what if questions, hypothetical questions, craziest what if questions, funny what if questions, planets, stars, space facts, the moon facts, the sun facts, astronomy, facts about the universe, solar system, mercury, venus, habitable zone, red planet, mars, gas giants, uranus, neptune, night sky, if the planets replaced our moon, replacing the moon with other planets

Id: YbftmfjCuuw

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2020