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What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
This is a whole lotta words and graphics to explain something that literally takes two sentences: Phobos orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates itself, while Deimos rotates slower than Mars. Thus from the ground their apparent motion is opposing in the sky; Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, while Phobos does the opposite. Done.
I thought it was an interesting article. Also, your comment breaks the guidelines: > Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
Perfection does.
I recommend 'the little book of coincidence in the solar system'
https://woodenbooks.com/index.php?id_cms=8&controller=cms#!L...
What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
But to be more precise on what that means, on a long time scale, the rotation speed of one object orbiting another tends to either speed up or slow down until one side is always facing the larger object.
Many other moons in the solar system do this with their parent planet, and Mercury does this with the sun.
It's happening to Earth as well, albeit too slowly to matter.
This is a whole lotta words and graphics to explain something that literally takes two sentences: Phobos orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates itself, while Deimos rotates slower than Mars. Thus from the ground their apparent motion is opposing in the sky; Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, while Phobos does the opposite. Done.
That said, I did think the last graphic in the article was really interesting, showing that with a highly elliptical orbit it's possible for a moon to both rise and set on the same side. The article could have been greatly improved by just showing those three planet/moon graphics and explaining the 3 possible states for each.
This is a whole lotta words and graphics to explain something that literally takes two sentences: Phobos orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates itself, while Deimos rotates slower than Mars. Thus from the ground their apparent motion is opposing in the sky; Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, while Phobos does the opposite. Done.
I thought it was an interesting article. Also, your comment breaks the guidelines: > Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
What I find unsettling is that our Moon rotates at a the precise perfect speed to make us "see always the same side". From all the possible speed values in the universe, why precisely that one?!
A superstitious person might suspect there were some cosmic hand tuning the celestial clockwork. Perhaps the motions of the planets has deep resonances with our own lives? You can see why astrology might have some appeal…