ELi5: why does it seem like the whole sky is walking with an individual?

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ELi5: why does it seem like the whole sky is walking with an individual?

In: Earth Science

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s an effect called “parallax,” where the close things seem to move faster than the far things.

You see this when traveling in cars, where the poles or fences next to you zip by, but those in the distance creep past. The objects on the horizon seem to move very little for a long time. The moon, sun, and stars, may seem to not move at all, except by orbital shifting.

The sky is very far away, in every direction, and unless it’s moving fast, such as clouds in the wind, it doesn’t seem to move at all.

Edit: fixed broken autocorrect

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because it’s so large, so far away, and you’re moving so little relative to it.

You can see the same thing at much smaller scales, too. If you stand 10ft away from a building/object, and take a step to the side, then do the same thing when you’re 200ft away from the building/object and do the same, you’ll notice that it doesn’t “move” as much as it did before.