The Frosted Earth

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:51:19 -0400

Topographically accurate LED moon light by NOSIGNER “The so...

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:50:17 -0400

Topographically accurate LED moon light by NOSIGNER

“The so called Supermoon – the lunar occurance on March 19th, 2011 in which the moon appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter – shined down on the people of Japan, inspiring them to believe in, and have hope for, rebuilding what they had lost just over a week ago. The Moon is a topographically-accurate LED light that was created based on data retrieved from the Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft Kaguya.”

theartofanimation: Facundo Diaz

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:33:55 -0400

theartofanimation:

Facundo Diaz

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Tue, 21 May 2013 00:25:04 -0400

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Tue, 21 May 2013 00:19:43 -0400

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Tue, 21 May 2013 00:17:20 -0400

the-science-llama: If Earth Had Rings First off, they would be...

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:15:39 -0400

Guatamala

Washington, DC

Quito, Ecuador

Polynesia The Earth's Shadow appears on the Rings at night

Arctic Circle The Rings are barely visible

the-science-llama:

If Earth Had Rings

First off, they would be really pretty to look at. They would also dominate the sky in both night and day at exactly the same place as they would never rise nor set. And at night you would see the Earth’s shadow swing across the rings, like in the 4th photo here.

However, life would be very different on Earth if this were the case. Nocturnal animals would have a hard time being nocturnal, as the light reflecting from the rings would illuminate the night.

Because we are closer to the Sun than Saturn is, the rings would be more rocky than ice, making them less bright but still pretty bright. In fact, you would see far less stars at night (living anywhere other than the equator or the arctic circle) because of the light pollution and not to mention ruin most meteor showers because of that.

During the day the rings would block sunlight in certain regions of the planet creating wild weather cycles and effecting plant life as well. So basically, they would be definitely pretty to look at but they would also make a whole lot of things screwy.

Illustrations by Ron Miller // io9
— Click the photos for captions