# How striking would our moon be to a seasoned space traveler? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 30, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297 "2026-06-30T12:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/21 "2026-06-30T14:49:01Z")
There was a [short story by Isaac Asimov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Jupiter) in which aliens negotiate with Earthlings for the purchase of Jupiter, which they intend for use as an advertising billboard. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/22 "2026-06-30T15:27:54Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Both Phobos and Deimos are so tiny that they aren’t even spherical, I think Mars is the third. To demonstrate, a scale comparison: > **[File:Moon Phobos Deimos.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moon_Phobos_Deimos.png)** > > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. There are no pages that use this file. > The following other wikis use this file: ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/23 "2026-06-30T15:34:38Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > while something we consider mundane (like oxygen…) poses an insurmountable challenge. Yes, when they spontaneously combust in an oxygen atmosphere. Ruins your whole visit. As for eclipses, the thing is, it isn’t obvious from space that the moon is the same angular size as the sun from the surface. Or that the moon passes in front of the sun. Especially since it varies. Yes, you could do the math, but why? Anyone in space can make their own eclipses on demand. And really, Saturn is by far the gem of our solar system. Chesley Bonestell’s 1944 masterpiece _Saturn as Seen from Titan_ [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ci/AL18g_Sc2Rl-TbInvYpE7LGPzCDPMOQv2hR348THEYL_3DhTwBZKQ-T_GWjXVIr4eCgtgNaeV3ULo_00=s1200) ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ci/AL18g_Sc2Rl-TbInvYpE7LGPzCDPMOQv2hR348THEYL_3DhTwBZKQ-T_GWjXVIr4eCgtgNaeV3ULo_00=s1200) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/24 "2026-06-30T15:53:22Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > That’s rather Terra-centric, I think. There’s no reason why completely alien biologies should be identical to our own. It’s entirely possible that radiation wouldn’t bother them, while something we consider mundane (like oxygen, which was once a servere problem on our own planet) poses an insurmountable challenge. [Biologist top hat]We know, due to our existence [anthropic monocle] , that a biology similar if not identical to our own _works_. No such guarantees exist for any hypothetical biologies radically different than ours. We know nucleotides and other biochemicals are VERY fragile and can only exist within certain rather narrow parameters. [Paper on the viability of silicon as the basis for life](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7345352/#sec5-life-10-00084)-in toto they are rather downcast on silicon’s utility in forming and sustaining life, but do admit that sulfuric acid _could_ serve as a sufficient solvent for certain “siliconic” biochemistries. [Wikipedia on alternate biochemistries.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/25 "2026-07-01T12:59:47Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > I’m especially struck by the idea of Deimos surrounded by a halo of children who only headed out to play hopscotch… OK, to be more precise, I shouldn’t have said that you could jump into orbit around Deimos. But an Olympic athlete could. Well, unless you’re an Olympic athlete. > [@John\_DiFool](#): > > [Biologist top hat]We know, due to our existence [anthropic monocle] , that a biology similar if not identical to our own _works_. No such guarantees exist for any hypothetical biologies radically different than ours. But you don’t need to get very radically different from Earth life to have, for instance, a higher tolerance to radiation. Heck, even among Earth life, we actually do have autotrophs that use gamma rays as their energy source instead of visible light. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/26 "2026-07-02T18:13:06Z")
Once you have watched C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate a pile of dust don’t cut it. Time to leave. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/27 "2026-07-02T18:15:39Z")
“Saturn, that’s kinda cool with the rings and all. The Moon? Just a battered space rock.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/28 "2026-07-02T18:26:40Z")
They might find tides interesting. Oceans that move? Cool. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/29 "2026-07-02T22:55:23Z")
Perhaps. If the Moon zapped out of existence, the Sun would still raise significant tides on Earth. Assuming planets w liquid oceans covering a decent fraction of their surface are fairly common, tides would be too. With or without natural moons. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2026, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297/30 "2026-07-03T01:34:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Perhaps. If the Moon zapped out of existence, the Sun would still raise significant tides on Earth. Yeah, about half as strong as the Moon’s tides. At full and new moon, they line up, so we get super-extreme tides, and at the quarters, they oppose, so we get weak, half-strength tides. Fun fact: This is because the Sun is, on average, about half as dense as the Moon. Well, that combined with the well-known fact that they have the same angular size in the sky. Tides are proportional to angular size cubed times density, so for two objects with the same angular size, it’s just proportional to density. While we’re at it: For a spherical object, the time to complete one orbit just above the surface also depends only on density. So it takes about an hour and a half to orbit the Earth, and about the same time for a metallic asteroid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-striking-would-our-moon-be-to-a-seasoned-space-traveler/1031297.md?page=1)