top 37 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 67 points 7 months ago* (6 children)

It's incomprehensibly special and rare that our moon amd star are just the right size and just the right distance away for us to experience almost perfect eclipses.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] [S] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

    I've been lucky enough to see a complete solar eclipse 2 times. It's even more special because it won't be able to do that forever and it didn't always either. Genuinely one of the coolest parts of our planet rn.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    That, and the, y'know, life supporting-ness.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 53 points 7 months ago
    [–] 28 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    No wonder the demons in Doom came to attack the base on Phobos. Janky ass turd of a moon

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 24 points 7 months ago
    [–] 21 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Can confirm. Earths total eclipses are wild. Most otherworldly spectacle I will witness in my life.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    I thought moons & planets always appear generally round from a distance. This lumpy irregularly-shaped Phobos looks like an asteroid.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 7 months ago* (3 children)

    Both Mars' moons (Phobos and Deimos) are asteroids. They're really small.

    "Hydrostatic equilibrium" is the term (I think) for when a body is massive enough for its gravity to pull it into a spheroid. E.g. Ceres is about 950km in diameter and is 'round'.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Hmm today I learned that asteroids can also be moons! Was it just floating around freely like any other asteroid until it got caught into the orbit of Mars, then got stuck there forever?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 45 points 7 months ago
    [–] 12 points 7 months ago

    Pathetic. No wonder we haven't bothered to go there yet.

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Sadly Deimos disappeared during the Deimos Event.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Banks had an idea that our total solar eclipse is unique on a galactic scale and aliens for sure come to Earth to see it. So if you want to find aliens you have to monitor solar eclipse sites. I wonder is any government agency actually did it.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Really weird book that one, even for Banks. Tangents or is it Inversions?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    Transitions I believe. I think it's the last or one of the last ones he wrote (he died and 2013 and in the book he mentions 2008 crisis). Weakest of his books I've read. Don't know if he didn't had the time to finish it or something but it was just full of holes.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago

    Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth!

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    “Am I…. Getting through?”

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    Big ups for Earth

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    Stoned Cookie Monster.

  • source
  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Is it still an eclipse if it's only a partial obscuration?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago

    My dumb arse for about five seconds "damn I didn't know Luna wasn't so round when viewed from mars".

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago