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

Question

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

Answer 1

Illusion, basically. Your brain doesn’t notice how small it actually is, when you look at it with the naked eye without a good reference point.

You can cover the whole full moon with the nail of your smallest finger held at arm’s length.