# Per "Space Reporter" Saturn will be directly between Earth and the Sun this weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769 "2014-05-06T01:46:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/41 "2014-05-08T16:30:22Z")
The whole story doesn’t ring true. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/42 "2014-05-08T16:48:35Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Curse you, **FordPrefect**! Curse you to Belgium!!! Betelgeuse, Ford Prefect is from Betelgeuse. Not Guilford, like he said. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/43 "2014-05-08T18:02:44Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Betelgeuse, Ford Prefect is from Betelgeuse. Not Guilford, like he said. You must have read the UK, rather than the US, edition. Lucky kneebiter. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/44 "2014-05-08T21:14:15Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > You must have read the UK, rather than the US, edition. Lucky kneebiter. 😉 I read the radio scripts. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/45 "2014-05-08T21:23:45Z")
Oh good. I’ve always wanted to see Saturn up close! ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/46 "2014-05-08T21:39:15Z")
Wow. This Saturday! That’s just in time for Mimas Day. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/47 "2014-05-08T21:40:00Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Actually, I’d be kind of worried about the whole “Saturn, 8.9 AU away from us, still being between us and the Sun” because, like, where the holy astronomical fuck would we have to be? > > OMG the aliens came and exchanged our orbit for Saturn’s! Our atmosphere is fluttering down as little frozen gas snowflakes right now! > > But that probably would solve global warming. 😃 Actually, it’s now _Climate Change._ And if we _were_ 8.9 AU from Saturn, with Saturn between us and the sun, then yes, I think we could expect a bit of climate change. Long johns and ear muffs ain’t gonna cut it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/48 "2014-05-08T22:30:11Z")
Except, AU is defined by the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so how Saturn could be directly between the Earth and the Sun and yet also be more than one AU away is mathematically perplexing. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/49 "2014-05-08T23:00:41Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Except, AU is defined by the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so how Saturn could be directly between the Earth and the Sun and yet also be more than one AU away is mathematically perplexing. Curved space? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/50 "2014-05-08T23:22:38Z")
A “wormhole”? Scary. Or maybe the writer transcribed “astronomical unit” from “AU” in the notes — if that were the case, and they meant the other measurement that uses that abbreviation, we would be getting a _really close_ look at Saturn :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/51 "2014-05-09T08:13:14Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Except, AU is defined by the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so how Saturn could be directly between the Earth and the Sun and yet also be more than one AU away is mathematically perplexing. > [@Biotop](#): > > Curved space? The Solar system is just a huge conspiracy anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/52 "2014-05-09T17:22:03Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I think this is right, looking at [http://www.solarsystemscope.com/](http://www.solarsystemscope.com/) Oooh, pretty! Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been looking for something just like that. 😃 > [@bup](#): > > So Saturn will be in eclipse! Er, nope. That would be a Solar eclipse. However, if we actually had two types of Solar eclipses, they’d need to add a word. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/53 "2014-05-09T18:55:58Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > A “wormhole”? Scary. Or maybe the writer transcribed “astronomical unit” from “AU” in the notes — if that were the case, and they meant the other measurement that uses that abbreviation, we would be getting a _really close_ look at Saturn :eek: See what happens when you leave punctuation out? That little ring over the A in Ångström Unit is punctuation, right? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769/54 "2014-05-09T21:26:40Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > See what happens when you leave punctuation out? That little ring over the A in Ångström Unit is punctuation, right? No, punctuation falls between words, or sometimes in the middle of a word, but it is always divisible from a character. What you are speaking of is a “diacritic” or diacritical mark. And anyway, in English, it is spelt “angstrom”, because “Ångström” was some Swedish dude’s name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-space-reporter-saturn-will-be-directly-between-earth-and-the-sun-this-weekend/687769.md?page=2)