Why does the earth look so small in pictures taken from the moon, but the moon looks so big to us while on earth?

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It seems like all of the pictures taken from the moon show earth as relatively small compared to how the moon looks to me while viewing it most nights.

In: Planetary Science

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A lot of factors are at play. The biggest factor is the type of cameras that have been on the Moon. Depending on the type of lens used, the apparent size of the Earth in a picture can vary wildly. Also a lot of pictures from spacecraft that are circulating are either cropped from larger images or assembled as collages from many smaller pictures, which can confuse observers as to what exactly they’re looking at (distance, type of camera etc not immediately apparent).

There is also another effect that plays a large role in how we perceive the size of objects in the sky. When they’re close to the horizon and close to things like mountains or a skyline, objects like the moon or even clouds, can appear larger. However when they’re high up in the sky or viewed from a flat plain with no mountains or buildings and no objects close to them, they always appear smaller or farther away. Unless the Earth is photographed to be rising or setting on the Moon’s horizon, it will always appear against an empty sky with nothing else but the Earth and stars, so it will appear to be smaller.

All that being said the Earth does appear larger from the Moon, than the Moon appears from the Earth.

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