Video Shows What Planets Would Look Like If They Were Closer To Earth

Ever wondered what the planets in our Solar System would look like if they were closer to Earth than the moon?

Apparently, distance-wise, it would work out – at the moon’s apogee you can fit all the planets in between the Earth and the moon. Laws of Physics-wise, it wouldn’t work out so well, as everything would be swallowed up by Jupiter’s gravitational pull. But that hasn’t stopped one YouTuber from visualising how our planetary neighbours might look up close and personal.

Nick Holmes, an amateur astronomer, has created a 3D model animation to give viewers a sense of the true scale of our Solar System, and how our planet compares to those around us. The video shows what our sky would look like if all the planets lined up in size order between us and the moon. And while Jupiter looks eerily like a giant Death Star rising into view, it’s actually pretty cool.

In the video, all the planets are positioned between the Earth and the moon, with less than 1,000km between each one. Each planet moves across our sky in the same direction based on their different orbital velocities, but interestingly, because the closer planets are moving faster than the Earth’s rotation, some of them rise in the west instead of the east.

It would probably be a bit of a surprise to walk outside one day and find Saturn looming large in the sky, but it’s an impressive visualisation nonetheless, and one that puts our place in our Solar System in some serious perspective.

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