ALL SCI-FI

[Eadie]

[Bud Brewster]

It's a very cool picture, Eadie!

Unfortunately, Discover magazine says it's fake. Here's the link to their article, part of their "Bad Astronomy" segment.



The reasons the author, Phil Plait, sites as indicators that its fake are not the ones I expected.

Here's why I suspected it was fake were:

"Jupiter couldn't be in the same picture as Earth and Venus unless it was on the far side of the sun. It's further out from the sun than Mars, Earth, and Venus, so it would be pretty dim from Mars -- even dimmer than here on Earth."

And I also thought to myself --

"Venus would never be very bright in the Martian sky, because Venus is 35,000,000 miles further away from Mars than it is from Earth!"

And also --

"Venus is bright from Earth because it's 26,000,000 miles closer to the sun than we are (so it gets more sunlight than we do), and it's covered in white, light-reflecting clouds. So, could Earth ever be very bright when seen from Mars? Earth is not all white, it's further from the sun than Venus (so it get's less sunlight), and it's 35,000,000 miles from Mars, compared to 26,000,000 miles between Earth and Venus."

Anyway, here's Phil Plait's reasons for thinking it's not a real photo. See whose reasons you like best.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)