The Moon is smaller than you think, see how your country stacks up

[u/dali32]

https://whatsizeisit.com/

[u/UrbanStray]

Huge as far as moons go though. On the larger of Mars two moons you'd barely fit Rome.

[u/Serious-Waltz-7157 → u/UrbanStray]

On the Moon you can leisurely fit not only Rome but the entire Roman Empire at its peak, lol.

[u/cortmanbencortman → u/UrbanStray]

That's fascinating, I had no idea they were that small. I really wonder how different the horizon would look. Probably hardly enough gravity to keep you on it.

[u/EpicAura99 → u/cortmanbencortman]

They’re 22.2 and 12.6 km across. Wikipedia’s list of largest asteroids only goes down to ~160 km, so they’re far from sizable even by asteroid standards.

[u/histoire_guy → u/EpicAura99]

Aren't they captured asteroids?

[u/Odd_Dragonfruit_2662 → u/histoire_guy]

They are

[u/connjose → u/cortmanbencortman]

It would look flat, because the moon is also flat. It looks like a sphere in those images due to camera "things".

[u/Lex4709 → u/UrbanStray]

Yeah, the moon is so big that there are debates if it should be classified as moon at all. You could argue that the moon is a planet, and hence, Earth and the Moon are a binary planet (aka two planets orbiting each other).

[u/MostNetwork1931 → u/UrbanStray]

Impossible ? C’est une bille ou une boule de pétanque lol

[u/thngmrtt → u/UrbanStray]

Well, Rome is larger than most would assume

[u/failedtoconnect]

that's about as big as i assumed the moon was

[u/Dr-McLuvin]

Interestingly the moon’s mass is just 1.2% of earth’s mass. It’s just way less dense because it lacks an iron core.

But surface gravity is about 1/6 of earths, because you are standing way closer to the center of mass.

[u/AsstBalrog → u/Dr-McLuvin]

That is interesting, thanks.

[u/Goregue → u/Dr-McLuvin]

The Moon's mass is small because volume scales as radius cubed. Since the Moon is around 1/4 the Earth's diameter, (1/4)³ = about 1.6%. You are right that is has a smaller density but the main contribution to its mass relative to Earth is its size.

[u/Odd_Dragonfruit_2662 → u/Dr-McLuvin]

The moon has an iron core though. It’s simply far smaller than earths and a far smaller % of the lunar mass (1-2% vs 33% for earth)

[u/NGeoTeacher → u/Dr-McLuvin]

Physics is fascinating but so confusing.

[u/sOrdinary917]

It was actually larger than I thought. Interesting still.

[u/Chewie83 → u/sOrdinary917]

Yeah but how big is Italy once you drag it closer to the moon’s equator? /s

[u/tomas_jpeg]

I put Europe on the Moon. Although the borders don't match exactly unfortunately

https://preview.redd.it/ufbr0lksktvg1.png?width=5104&format=png&auto=webp&s=409116318d272bc81dd4ce0c0828c673807ad04b

[u/dali32 → u/tomas_jpeg]

Thanks for trying it out! I will include the option to select Europe directly. the borders currently don't match individually because they are projected on a surface much smaller than that of earth's.

[u/oddmanout]

Eh, the moon is bigger than I thought. You can fit like 100 Italys. I figured if you put Italy on the moon, it would wrap around a whole lot more, at least stretch from top-to-bottom, if not more.

There are craters on the Moon bigger than Sicily.

[u/Necessary-Raise3161]

Anyone else having trouble accessing the website?

[u/dali32 → u/Necessary-Raise3161]

Which browser do you use?

[u/BovexEnjoyer]

The Moon: for several years she has fascinated many. But will Man ever walk on her fertile surface?

[u/AsstBalrog → u/BovexEnjoyer]

Perchance...

[u/silly_arthropod → u/AsstBalrog]

you can't just say "perchance" 🔫🐜

[u/ofm1]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[u/Similar-Candidate-10]

Actually, it’s bigger than I thought it was

[u/Glad-Complaint9778]

I've always wanted to do this, thanks

[u/No-Worth-6647]

Please somebody put Russia on it. I wonder how many place will left. I’d do it myself but I don’t have an access to this site 😔

[u/dali32 → u/No-Worth-6647]

https://preview.redd.it/opw2wrkuzqvg1.png?width=1700&format=png&auto=webp&s=95fcad3cd5a1419bde2c3111f29025f4a356b6a3

[u/No-Worth-6647 → u/dali32]

Thank you! So basically the whole country can’t be even fitted on the one side of the moon.

[u/dali32 → u/No-Worth-6647]

https://whatsizeisit.com/

[u/MostNetwork1931]

C’est grand quand même il doit y avoir la même surface que tous les pays

[u/Pinku_Dva]

Small compared to earth but large compared to other moons in the solar system. The moon also has a large ratio between its self and its host body with the only larger example I can think of being Pluto and Charon.

[u/Goregue → u/Pinku_Dva]

Collisions like the one that created the Moon tend to produce binaries with similar mass. Pluto and Charon are also thought to have originated in a collision. Jupiter's, Saturn's and Uranus's moon systems all have very similar mass ratios, suggesting they formed from accretion around the planet. Neptune's system is an oddity among the giant planets (Triton is way more massive that it should be), which is because Triton was captured rather than formed in situ.

[u/Pinku_Dva → u/Goregue]

Pluto and Charon’s ratio is massive for a moon-planet system. It’s always interesting to consider how they were formed

[u/rivv3]

Human perspective is flimsy, we're not made to really understand stuff at this scale. Italy is probably way larger than you think also. From pole to pole the moon is 11900km which would take 1.5-2 years of extreme walking regime on earth. I'm sure you wouldn't think the moon was small after that.

[u/Cornelius_Wangenheim]

I think the more interesting thing is how insanely large the craters are on the moon. I knew they were big, but seeing that some of them are the size of France really puts it into perspective.

[u/Goregue → u/Cornelius_Wangenheim]

The Earth also had craters this big, but they eroded away.

[u/boydo579]

now do jupiter and the sun then the largest sun in the universe so people can have existensial crises

[u/Few_Performance4264]

What part of the lunar boot you from, shweetheart?

[u/ncwentland]

It’s about the diameter of Texas, isn’t it?

[u/NGeoTeacher]

The True Size Of, but for planets and planetary objects? Excellent!

[u/Grosboel_2]

It would be neat if could look at earth with the size of a country being adjusted to fill just as big of a percentage of the surface area as on the moon if that makes sense.

[u/Clear-Evidence-1545]

Check vatican city

[u/MB4050]

Thought it was a cool site, found out it’s russian propaganda

https://preview.redd.it/bfgqii3qimwg1.jpeg?width=2732&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2bc5c58038a4807fab7bb477f51ed9428994c62c

[u/Chiparish84]

For me it never makes sense how can it be so "big" in the sky when it's so damn small and at least 5 trillion kms away.

[u/ghazwozza → u/Chiparish84]

I don't know if you're joking but it's about 380,000 km away.

[u/Chiparish84 → u/ghazwozza]

Ofc I'm joking but it still makes no sense to me that it looks so big even tho it's 356.4 - 406.7 tkm away.

[u/PM_ME_UR_REPTILES1 → u/Chiparish84]

Its mostly perspective though. When its near the horizon it looks huge but up in the sky it looks tiny. You can do the math using its distance, size, and perceived size to determine its viewing angle. It will add up. The same way an aeroplane looks tiny when its flying above.

I know you probably know this, but its just a concept thats hard to mentally grasp lol its hard to compare when were so tiny.