Re: A coincidence I have a problem with.
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if you were to illustrate the coincidence that the sun is 400x the size of the moon and also 400x further away from Earth, how would you do it?
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I'd start with the ratios of other planets and their satellites (to the sun) in our solar system. It's our only comparitive bench mark.
I'd also look to see if the ideal orbit for any satellite is linked to it's mass. That is, if the moon was smaller, would it likley be closer, thus having near the same effect in relative diamter to the sun during an eclipse.
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Yeah but the Earth and Venus are very close to the same size, and Mars is smaller than the Earth, but Jupiter is much bigger. So that sort of blows the possible size->orbit connection.
Apparently the way the major planets formed is by gathering up all the stuff in their immediate vicinity. Sort of like an orbiting version of flakes coalescing in a cereal bowl. There's a lot of randomness to the process in terms of how much material exists in each disk, and how soon a massive ball starts sucking the other objects up.
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