See what solar eclipses would look like from other planets

bbenmccarthy about 5 hours ago 2 commentsRead Article on benmccarthy.com.au

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pavel_lishin•about 5 hours ago

I've read a few stories about what would be appealing about the Earth to alien species, and solar eclipses were one of the things mentioned - what are the odds of another solar system having this sort of size/distance alignment to result in a nearly-perfect apparent size of both the moon and the sun in the sky?

Another I remember being mentioned as potentially a valuable thing is wood.

Things like water and metals and other elements are just much easier to harvest from asteroids, if you're already a species that can travel between the stars; the concept of aliens coming here to suck up our oceans for the water are just not particularly plausible given what we know now.

benmccarthy•about 5 hours ago

My understanding is that it's not just the apparent size of the moon to its sun, it's that the window only exists for a while. So for this to happen on our planet, and right now, means we're super lucky.

Talking about coincidences; there's another interactive on the site that visualises how much of different precious materials may exist throughout the universe. And you're right, wood is one of the rarest.