[HN Gopher] If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)
        
       Author : matesz
       Score  : 247 points
       Date   : 2022-09-22 09:27 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (joshworth.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (joshworth.com)
        
       | whiddershins wrote:
       | What's wild about this is trying to imagine those scales when you
       | remember how absolutely huge the earth is relative to each of us.
       | 
       | If you haven't done this before, go out into the desert or
       | canyons or the Hoover dam (in the U.S.) and experience viscerally
       | how tiny each of us is relative to nature.
       | 
       | Trying to hold that in my mind while also conceptualizing the
       | distance to Mars, or the size of the sun ... I can't do it!
        
       | MauranKilom wrote:
       | I strongly recommend clicking the "lightspeed" button in the
       | bottom right at some point.
       | 
       | You thought scrolling was slow? Wait until you experience the
       | solar system _at the actual speed of light_.
        
         | thorin wrote:
         | Thanks for pointing that out! Lightspeed is really S---L---O---
         | W isn't it?
         | 
         | I'm pleased he still loves Pluto.
        
           | philliphaydon wrote:
           | Me too. Pluto will always be a planet to me!
        
             | isolli wrote:
             | Related: I find it annoying that we went through the
             | trouble of downgrading Pluto, but we still count any rock
             | that orbits a planet as a moon. If planets have 69 moons,
             | then it becomes tedious and I quickly lose interest in
             | learning about them. I wish there was a definition that
             | included our moon (obviously), made sure that Mars has at
             | least one moon, but limited the number of moons that
             | Jupiter and Saturn have to a handful.
             | 
             | Criteria could include: size or weight relative to the
             | planet, distance to the planet, apparent size in the sky.
        
               | philliphaydon wrote:
               | I had never thought about that. I just googled to find
               | out Jupiter has 79 moons? WTF...
        
               | midasuni wrote:
               | When I was in high school there were about 50 moons in
               | the entire system. There were zero exoplanets now,
               | there's thousands today.
        
               | isolli wrote:
               | I'm happy that we're finding ever more exoplanets! I
               | remember, as a kid, that there was speculation as to
               | whether they even existed.
               | 
               | I'm less happy about the moon inflation in our solar
               | system. It's pointless. I honestly find the claim that
               | Jupiter has 79 moons misleading. A 1 km rock orbiting 20
               | million kilometers away, really? It's so far removed from
               | what our moon is that we should not be using the same
               | word to describe it. It's fine to call it a satellite.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | So does Saturn. At least, maybe not exactly the same
               | number, but a number just a large
        
               | isolli wrote:
               | According to this website, there are dozens of "moons"
               | that orbit 10 to 20 million of kilometers away from
               | Jupiter and have diameters between just 1 and 10 km. It's
               | time for a change of nomenclature!
               | 
               | https://theplanets.org/moons/
        
             | hoseja wrote:
             | Either Pluto is a planet and Eris and Haumea and Makemake
             | and Sedna and.... are too or you let go of what they taught
             | you in elementary school and be fine with the dwarf planet
             | designation.
        
               | bnralt wrote:
               | I saw a Twitter post the other day showing the orbit of
               | planets in the solar system that included Ceres. There
               | were tons of replies saying "What's Ceres? Did they
               | discover a new planet?"
               | 
               | People would probably have a better idea about our solar
               | system if we taught them that we don't know how many
               | planets are in the solar system, and told them we were
               | going to have some extra focus on the 8 largest (or 13
               | largest, or 7, wherever you want to draw the line).
               | 
               | The IAU definition of planet (which wasn't the original
               | proposal, and which most planetary scientists don't seem
               | to follow) appears to be a conservative attempt to keep
               | the number as close to the "traditional" number as
               | possible, even if it leads people into having an overly
               | simplistic conception of our solar system. And it leaves
               | us with a loose definition that specifically states it
               | only applies to our solar system, and doesn't apply
               | anywhere else in the universe.
        
         | bjarneh wrote:
         | Wow, that was even more eye opening. I've always tried that
         | website at impossible speed..
        
         | dotancohen wrote:
         | Eight and a half minutes to scroll to Earth?
        
           | b0afc375b5 wrote:
           | Is it just me or is the speed of light slow? /s
           | 
           | But seriously I always "knew" in the back of my mind that the
           | universe is huge. But to have to wait 8+ minutes to scroll
           | from Sun to Earth at the speed of light gives a new earth-
           | shattering perspective.
        
             | wizofaus wrote:
             | Traveling at the sort of speed we can easily imagine as
             | "fast", say 150km/hr, it'd take 115 years.
        
               | midasuni wrote:
               | The fastest travel speed we can really understand is
               | about the speed of sound (jet travel), most westerners
               | have travelled at that speed.
               | 
               | At jet speed it takes best part of a month just to get to
               | the moon, to get to the sun takes 17 years. To reach
               | Neptune you'd have to have left about the same time
               | Columbus visited America.
        
               | dhosek wrote:
               | >The fastest travel speed we can really understand is
               | about the speed of sound (jet travel), most westerners
               | have travelled at that speed.
               | 
               | To be pedantic, no, not really. Commercial jets can
               | travel at speeds up to 955 kilometres per hour (593 mph)
               | (per wikipedia). The speed of sound is roughly 1235 kph
               | (767 mph). Also note that commercial jets usually travel
               | slower than their maximum speed to save fuel.
        
             | wincy wrote:
             | What's really bizarre is from what I understand is those
             | photons spend something between 10,000 and 170,000 years
             | bouncing around colliding with stuff inside the sun. From
             | there it takes a mere 8 minutes to get to earth. [0]
             | 
             | [0] http://www.astronoo.com/en/articles/journey-of-the-
             | photon.ht...
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | And then over 2,000,000 additional minutes to pass the
               | nearest photon-emitting (as opposed to reflecting) object
               | in the best case.
        
               | vikingerik wrote:
               | Technical nitpick (but HN loves these) - the gas and ice
               | giant planets do emit photons, in the infrared, where the
               | energy comes from gravitational compression. Neptune in
               | particular emits 2.4x as much energy as it receives from
               | the sun.
        
               | marcosdumay wrote:
               | For the photons, any travel is instantaneous, and the
               | Earth is just at the side of the Sun.
        
       | aMadMan wrote:
       | "Might as well stop now. We'll need to scroll through 6,771 more
       | maps like this before we see anything else." pfff, only took like
       | a second. I would have gone the other 6,771 more maps to see
       | whats out there.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | a f*ing amazing design
        
       | once_inc wrote:
       | Please note that if you want to read all of the blurbs of text
       | visible between the planets, you need only to view the source of
       | the page. They're just divs, and it saves you a large amount of
       | scrolling.
       | 
       | Space is big. Space is empty. We are nothing to space.
        
         | rizky05 wrote:
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | HTML introduces content.
         | 
         | CSS introduces space.
         | 
         | JavaScript introduces waiting.
         | 
         | Seems appropriate that the technology represents itself on this
         | page.
        
       | jack_riminton wrote:
       | For a site whose UX relies on scrolling, that's a horribly done
       | scroll
        
         | edngibson wrote:
         | A tip - hold down the middle mouse button down and move your
         | mouse around. It's scroll speed is variable dependent on how
         | far your mouse is away from the origin point, so it's quite
         | useful.
         | 
         | You can clear the entire screen in around 15 seconds if you go
         | max speed!
        
           | forgotpwd16 wrote:
           | For Linux users, browsers disable this behavior by default
           | because it interacts weirdly with middle click paste. To
           | enable on Firefox) search "autoscroll" in settings, Chrome)
           | run with `--enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll`
           | (also there's an extension for it if anyone finds the message
           | shown at start annoying).
        
         | darkwater wrote:
         | You can use arrow keys as well, really convenient.
        
         | whiteboardr wrote:
         | For those who do not want to scroll, here's an absolutely
         | brilliant video illustrating the scale:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/zR3Igc3Rhfg
        
           | matesz wrote:
           | That is indeed beautiful video!
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | There's a "light speed" button at the bottom (only worked when
         | I disabled anti tracker mode in my browser) that will scroll
         | for you at the equivalent of light speed. No tired fingers!
         | 
         | The downside is that you'll be waiting 4:47:50.88 to reach
         | Pluto.
         | 
         | Alternatively, there's a planet browser on the top, but that
         | kind of "cheating" kind of diminishes the point of the website.
         | 
         | Personally, I would've liked the website to scroll vertically
         | instead. Shift+scroll isn't difficult, but it's a trick many
         | people don't know about so relying on it (or on a touch screen,
         | or a scroll bar at the bottom that completely defeats the sense
         | of scale that scrolling leaves behind) is a bit annoying.
        
         | qwertox wrote:
         | Tip: Get a mouse with a free-spinning wheel like the Logitech
         | MX Anywhere 2s. The difference is analogous to using SSD vs.
         | HDD.
        
         | a3w wrote:
         | Forces me to scroll half a physical meter per 20 sun diameters
         | on my mouse wheel. Aborted.
        
           | hakcermani wrote:
           | The planets are clickable on top ..
        
           | quickthrower2 wrote:
           | That is part of the art. Planet hopping is not considered
           | convenient. Would be worse if you had to follow the rockets
           | path!
        
       | dpcx wrote:
       | I do wish that this contained Voyager data - if for no other
       | reason than to show just how far out "we" have actually gone.
        
       | vogon_laureate wrote:
       | You could quibble about the scrolling animation finesse but it is
       | a nicely designed site and is a great use of horizontal
       | scrolling. Plus, always nice to see astronomy content on Hacker
       | News (even if it's been posted a few times before). Some of
       | Josh's other work is also interesting in terms of web design and
       | STEM subjects, like this Max Planck Institute page:
       | <https://scattering-amplitudes.mpp.mpg.de/welcome>.
        
       | qwertox wrote:
       | Scrolling and waiting for the first galaxy light-years away to
       | show up: Mercury. What?
        
       | platos_revenge wrote:
       | There's an irl version of this built along a canal in Somerset,
       | UK.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk
        
         | gopiandcode wrote:
         | Funny you should mention that - I actually ran into another in-
         | proportion solar system park model in Eugene, Oregon, USA:
         | https://eugenesciencecenter.org/exhibits/eugene-solar-system...
        
       | plato_vengeance wrote:
       | There's an irl version of this built along a canal in Somerset,
       | UK.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk
        
         | mcv wrote:
         | Interesting that this has its own Wikipedia page, but the Dutch
         | Melkwegpad does not.
         | 
         | (Edit: turns out there's a ton of these, and while most don't
         | have their own page, there's a page collecting them all:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model)
        
       | mcv wrote:
       | There's a walk somewhere in the east of Netherland that I did
       | with my kids a while ago, where you walk through a scale
       | representation of the solar system. You start with Pluto (it's an
       | old walk), then walk a very long time before you meet Neptune,
       | then again a very long time before you come across Uranus. That's
       | already a major part of the walk right there. Then the planets
       | start coming quicker, and the last 10 meters or so is the inner
       | solar system. And after that is the radio telescope array at
       | Westerbork.
       | 
       | It really gives a good feel for the massive difference in
       | distances between the inner and outer solar system. I strongly
       | recommend it to anyone who is in that vicinity.
        
         | bumbledraven wrote:
         | This site overlays a model of the solar system at the desired
         | scale on the Google Maps location of your choice:
         | 
         | https://thinkzone.wlonk.com/SS/SolarSystemModel.php?obj=Sun&...
         | 
         | Helps with the planning process for building your own model
         | solar system.
        
         | midasuni wrote:
         | There's quite a few at different scales - in fact I believe the
         | mall in Washington DC has one.
        
         | darkwater wrote:
         | There is a similar thing (but at reduced scale) in the "Cite de
         | l'Espace" in Toulouse, France. Just liek this site (old but
         | gold), it really helps you to put things into perspective.
        
         | daniel-cussen wrote:
         | You know what I got the education I got, I memorized that,
         | there was little new information making it a non-planet. You
         | know those same guys call carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen metals?
         | It's a description. In astronomy, metal means anything greater
         | than hydrogen and helium. Every element but the first two.
         | Change of nomenclature, really, and I guess motivated because
         | of seeing other planetary systems.
         | 
         | The entire Solar System is highly aberrant. Single star,
         | instead of binary star. Then, a moon around earth, very large
         | moon, besides, it is the same size in the sky (varying over
         | time) as the sun, leading to different eclipses (like anular
         | eclipses, which accurately measured a biblical event 4000 years
         | ago, to the day, I think it was a Tuesday). Like everything is
         | very unique, apparently.
        
         | sonar_un wrote:
         | There is one in Zurich very similar as well. With the
         | representations of the size of the planets.
        
           | capableweb wrote:
           | Seems there are a whole bunch of them across the planet:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model
           | 
           | Largest one being in Sweden, with a scale of 1:20,000,000
           | (spanning the whole country):
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model
           | 
           | In comparison, both the Zurich and Netherlands one are
           | 1:1,000,000,000
        
             | mcv wrote:
             | That one in Sweden is huge! Country-wide indeed.
        
         | danjoredd wrote:
         | I remember an episode of Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman on PBS where
         | one of the challenges was to build a scale model of the Solar
         | System by placing planets on the sidewalk. The kids had to walk
         | for miles to get it to scale. My at-the-time 12 y/o brain was
         | blown
        
         | I-M-S wrote:
         | Zagreb has one of these as well:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views
        
         | ovi256 wrote:
         | My town in France has this as a riverside walk, spread over 5
         | km into the next towns. Well, my hometown has the inner system
         | over a few hundred meters, then it's vast emptyness over the
         | next 5km :)
         | 
         | http://www.planetesdelyvette.universite-paris-saclay.fr/IMG/...
        
         | danieldk wrote:
         | Just want to say that I loved going there as a kid. The
         | distances were very educative. They also had a 1kg (I think)
         | block of iron that you could lift, and you could then try what
         | it'd feel like with the gravitation of the different planets.
        
         | davedx wrote:
         | Ha no way. My in-laws just moved to Drenthe. I'm definitely
         | going to check this out with the kids, thanks a lot for the
         | tip!
        
         | mcherm wrote:
         | My college had a similar installation, with the inner solar
         | system on the walls of the physics/astronomy building and the
         | other planets scattered about the campus at appropriate
         | distances. But my favorite part was the plaque that said that
         | somewhere in Alaska was the final piece of the installation: a
         | scale model of the nearest star.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | For the scale model in Alaska to really sink in for your
           | story, it would have helped to know where your college was
           | located. If your college was in the Yukon would be one thing,
           | but if your college was in Miami that would be totally
           | different.
        
         | thombat wrote:
         | Sounds like a scale of 1:1,000,000,000 so the Earth is 150m
         | from the Sun, Mars is 75m further, and Pluto somewhere around
         | 6km. That's the same (mind boggling) scale as our local one -
         | and to complete the picture you can put a toothpick 23.585km
         | from the sun and move it every day 147cm further from the sun.
         | A 20nm fleck on the tip of the toothpick is then Voyager 1
         | represented on the same scale.
        
         | globular-toast wrote:
         | Sweden has a permanent one. The inner planets are in Stockholm
         | while the outer planets are across the rest of Sweden.
         | 
         | There was a touring one that was in Cambridge (UK) recently and
         | we thoroughly enjoyed walking it even if the walk to Pluto was
         | quite far. Walking it in reverse order would have been better,
         | perhaps. Didn't think of that.
        
         | april_22 wrote:
         | I can imagine that is type of things are the best possible way
         | to visualize the scales that we are living in.
         | 
         | Would love to see something similar for bigger dimensions, e.g.
         | distance to the nearest star, galaxy or exoplanet.
        
         | paulette449 wrote:
         | Caherdaniel, Kerry, Ireland, in a dark sky preserve [1] has a
         | "Walk of the Planets" [2] along the Kerry Way hiking trail
         | where both the planets and distance between them (3.5kms) are
         | to scale. It's a really interesting way to see the relative
         | size of the planets and the distance between them.
         | 
         | [1] - https://www.darksky.org/our-
         | work/conservation/idsp/reserves/... [2] -
         | https://www.caherdanieldarksky.com
        
       | tonetheman wrote:
       | What I love about that site when you combine it with 1 pixel =
       | 3478 km.
       | 
       | If you drove 88km an hour it would take you almost 40 hours to
       | drive across 1 pixel!
       | 
       | Our solar system is big big big.
       | 
       | I used to do the math with my kids when they were young and first
       | found out about division. My story would be lets drive to the
       | moon. And then we would figure out how far it was and how fast we
       | could drive.
       | 
       | I love that site.
        
       | Overtonwindow wrote:
       | Wow that was really epic! What an excellent presentation of size
       | and distance. Beautiful work!
        
       | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
       | and to think you can go out in space and hit a planet or
       | something by mistake, you know.... like kids do when walking on
       | the sidewalk?
        
       | mwidell wrote:
       | In Sweden, there is a scale replica of the solar system, with
       | correct distances. The sun is represented by the Avicii Arena,
       | the world's largest spherical building.
       | http://www.swedensolarsystem.se/
        
       | Overtonwindow wrote:
       | A very science question as I finally arrive at Jupiter.. Is it
       | possible that at one point, Jupiter was actually a sun?
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | this is cool!
       | 
       | I wish we could see yet another live indicator on that map, a
       | speed indicator of our scrolling in actual mph, km/h, AU, parsec,
       | and speed of light.
       | 
       | this way we can see the speed of our scrolling!!
        
         | dotancohen wrote:
         | If you scrolled to Earth in less that eight and a half minutes,
         | then you were already breaking the speed of light.
        
       | pleb_nz wrote:
       | I'm confused
       | 
       | If the moon is a single pixel, how is it shown as a half moon
       | 
       | Shouldn't it be a single dot/pixel?
        
         | lostlogin wrote:
         | If it's a half moon we'll need sub-pixel rendering.
        
       | jawadch93 wrote:
        
       | mrfinn wrote:
       | I did a spreadsheet some time ago with the appropriate
       | proportions, taking the data from the NASA website, just for fun,
       | thinking about how big the solar system would be if the sun would
       | be like a 60cm diameter (big) beach balloon.
       | 
       | My results:
       | 
       | Mercury: 26m away, pinhead alike.
       | 
       | Venus: 49m away, pea alike.
       | 
       | Earth: 67m away, pea alike (again).
       | 
       | Mars: 103m away, small lentil alike.
       | 
       | Jupiter: 350m away, tennis ball alike.
       | 
       | Saturn: 645m away, golf ball alike.
       | 
       | Uranus: 1,3km~ away, 2EUR coin alike.
       | 
       | Neptune: 2km~ away, 1EUR coin alike.
       | 
       | PS. Forgot the most impressive info by far... in that "beach
       | ballon=star" scale, our closest star neighbor is almost 7,000kms
       | away!
        
       | leobg wrote:
       | For visualizing the timescales, there's a great app. Walk 4.6 km
       | through 4.6 billion years of time.
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/app/deep-time-walk-earth-history/id11...
        
       | intrasight wrote:
       | The "Pretty empty out here" made me laugh. And the "you are
       | here".
       | 
       | "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-
       | bogglingly big it is" -- Douglas Adams
       | 
       | Is cool that it's done in SVG. Here's Earth:
       | <circle cx="5" cy="5" r="5"></circle>
        
       | a3w wrote:
       | This solar system was on ycombinator 27-ish times before:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=joshworth.com
        
         | matesz wrote:
         | Interesting. Shouldn't there be an autoredirect to the existing
         | thread on submit?
        
           | quickthrower2 wrote:
           | If t < x, yes
        
           | forgotpwd16 wrote:
           | Maybe if it was recently resubmitted and already had a
           | discussion (usually a mod will mark the newer as dupe) or
           | recently submitted multiple times without getting attention
           | (since at this point it becomes spam). But if recent
           | submission was long time ago (so older thread is basically
           | archived), it makes sense to be submitted anew.
        
         | kuu wrote:
         | "Funny" thing is that an user has submitted it (at least) twice
        
       | matesz wrote:
       | FYI there is an icon on the bottom right corner, which makes
       | scroll automatic with the speed of light to scale.
        
       | sci_prog wrote:
       | "The Moon diameter (approximately equal to the distance from New
       | York to Las Vegas)"
       | 
       | Imagine how glorious and huge the Earth must look like from the
       | Moon.
        
         | NickRandom wrote:
         | No need to imagine, have a look at
         | 
         | https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1...
         | 
         | and
         | https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_6...
         | 
         | I would have linked to the 'Blue Marble' picture but that was
         | taken mid-flight rather than from the moon itself.
        
           | sci_prog wrote:
           | The photo doesn't do it justice tho. Just like a photo of the
           | full Moon low on the horizon doesn't look anywhere close to
           | what my eyes are seeing. Now imagine a full moon, with a
           | diameter roughly 4 times as big, that's how big the Earth is
           | looking back from the moon. North America itself is the size
           | of the full moon. Pretty wild to think about.
        
         | yrgulation wrote:
         | And how gloriously dumb human kind looks like considering we
         | are fighting petty wars over resources we could get from space
         | in unlimited amounts.
        
       | MarcosDione wrote:
       | the author seems not to have kids; 'When are we gonna be there?'
       | should be the much terse 'Are we there yet?' :)
        
       | mg wrote:
       | That everything is so empty is the aspect of the universe that I
       | find most surprising.
       | 
       | This also holds for small things like atoms. They are mostly
       | empty space, too. And for bigger things like galaxies.
       | 
       | Most other aspects seem to be "good" choices. Like limiting the
       | speed of things. The way it is limited (as described by special
       | relativity) is even really elegant. The uncertainty as described
       | by quantum theory and how it is coupled to the observer is
       | downright cool. I often think "Yes, if I made a universe from
       | scratch, this seems like a nice choice to go with".
       | 
       | But that everything is so empty? I would not have made that
       | choice, I think.
       | 
       | You?
        
         | mrtransient wrote:
         | Mass is energy, localised in space-time, thats why space mostly
         | empty, but mot completly emty, not 0 Kelvin.
        
         | jl6 wrote:
         | It may look empty to human eyes but there's actually a lot
         | going on in "empty space". Aside from physical objects that are
         | just too small to detect from Earth (small asteroids (some
         | gravitationally bound to the sun, others just passing through),
         | dust, fragments of ancient collisions, gas, isolated molecules,
         | and hydrogen and helium leftover from the formation of the
         | solar system), there is also the ever-blowing solar wind -
         | particles from the sun heading outwards - and a hailstorm of
         | photons emitted from far off sources (other stars and galaxies,
         | nebulae, pulsars, the extreme red-shifted radiation of distant
         | energetic events... and much much more), passing through
         | allowing us to see the rest of the universe. On top of these
         | natural sources of EM radiation, our solar system at least
         | tingles with human-created radio waves. Empty space also
         | vibrates with gravitational waves, which we are only just
         | starting to be able to detect. We theorise that any remaining
         | emptiness might actually be boiling over with the continual
         | creation and destruction of virtual particles. And who knows
         | what's going on with dark matter?
        
         | pavelboyko wrote:
         | Well, if I want my universe to be manageable (don't ask me
         | why), introducing the hierarchy of scales from the beginning is
         | a natural solution.
        
         | mjreacher wrote:
         | > This also holds for small things like atoms. They are mostly
         | empty space, too
         | 
         | Not quite so simple, see:
         | https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/126512/why-doesn...
        
         | dotancohen wrote:
         | > I often think "Yes, if I made a universe from scratch, this
         | seems like       > a nice choice to go with".
         | 
         | One interpretation of that thought: All the universes that were
         | not so elegant, collapsed quickly or did not develop life, or
         | did not develop life as complex as us. We are here, living and
         | complex, in _this_ universe because _this_ universe is so
         | elegant.
        
         | lionkor wrote:
         | I think the emptiness of space is an illusion--really, there is
         | a lot going on, in terms of gravitational forces, etc.
        
         | quickthrower2 wrote:
         | Too much stuff you just end up with a big black hole, perhaps?
        
       | lionkor wrote:
       | FYI you can use the buttons in the top to not have to scroll like
       | a maniac.
        
       | metayrnc wrote:
       | Just from the size of the scroll bar you can get a feeling of the
       | size of this map.
        
       | zestyping wrote:
       | How does the browser actually render a page this wide?
       | 
       | Is there a framebuffer containing the whole page, or is it a
       | display list of vector objects that gets clipped by the page's
       | bounding box?
       | 
       | On which platforms would this page cause the browser to run out
       | of memory and crash?
        
       | ianai wrote:
       | Do one for hydrogen/helium atoms and a side by side comparison.
       | Please.
        
       | legec wrote:
       | For the people out there looking for a walkthrough :
       | 
       | [spoiler]
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem....
       | 
       | [/spoiler]
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27573172 - June 2021 (69
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21735528 - Dec 2019 (82
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A tediously accurate map of the
       | solar system_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13790954 -
       | March 2017 (81 comments)
       | 
       |  _If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A tediously accurate map of the
       | solar system_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13217129 -
       | Dec 2016 (11 comments)
       | 
       |  _If the Moon Was Only 1 Pixel_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12038584 - July 2016 (4
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _If the moon were only 1 pixel: a scale model of the solar
       | system_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7551423 - April
       | 2014 (17 comments)
       | 
       |  _If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7341690 - March 2014 (178
       | comments)
        
         | pixelpoet wrote:
         | Pleased to see subjunctive mood winning out for a change!
        
           | scrozier wrote:
           | Two years of Latin in high school impressed the subjunctive
           | mood onto my brain forever. Now I'm "that guy" occasionally.
        
             | pixelpoet wrote:
             | As a German speaker "was" is especially awful sounding
             | because we have the exactly analogous "ware" (conditional,
             | instead of "war" which means "was") which also sounds very
             | similar.
             | 
             | I've had people try to "correct" my use of subjunctive...
             | which truly saps my will to live.
        
           | ripe wrote:
           | Lol, "was" versus "were" usage is a pet peeve of mine. Looks
           | like some time im 2016 they got an English major to fix the
           | headline.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | I really enjoyed that!
       | 
       | I liked the philosophical musings on the theme of "nothing."
       | 
       | This was my fave:
       | 
       |  _> It seems like we are both pathetically insignificant, and
       | miraculously important at the same time._
        
       | martincmartin wrote:
       | Boston had a Community Solar System Trail, where both the size of
       | the planets and the distance between them were to the same scale.
       | The sun was 11.6 ft at the Museum of Science. Mercury and Venus
       | were in the building. Mars was in the Cambridgeside Galleria, a
       | few blocks away. Uranus was in a different neighborhood, Jamaica
       | Plain.
       | 
       | It was featured on an episode of the kids TV show Fetch! With
       | Ruff Ruffman.
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-22 23:02 UTC)