The sun is nearly 900,000 miles in diameter. It is somewhat more than 90,000,000 miles away from the earth.
The the moon is a little more than 2,000 miles in diameter. It is a bit over 200,000 miles away from the earth.
So, when you do the math, that means the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon. And it is also about 400 times further away.
And it is this synchronicity that accounts for the fact that the moon and the sun look just about exactly the same size as one another in our sky.
There is no particular reason for this other than chance.
Let me say that one more time: THERE IS NO PARTICULAR REASON FOR THIS OTHER THAN CHANCE!
It is a cosmic coincidence of absolutely outlandish proportions.
The more you think about it, the harder it is to believe. The odds of these two unrelated celestial bodies being in this precise ratio to one another, in relation to a third body (the one we all happen to live on) are so very, very slim.
And yet it just so happened to happen that way.
We all collectively witness this wild coincidence every day. And we almost entirely overlook it. We’re so completely used to the end result that most of us have no reason ever give the astonishing fact of it a single thought. Like quite possibly never in our entire lives.
The most amazing things really are hiding in plain sight.
Hi friends!
This post marks 1 year that I’ve been sending out these illustrated essays. I hope you’ve been enjoying receiving them as much as I’ve been enjoying putting them together for you! I recently learned how to make sections on my Substack page so if you go here you can look up at the top of the page and find the tab called “Essays” (between “Art” and “Dispatches”) and navigate to all 12 of the first year’s worth gathered together. I think that’s kind of neat-o.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read! It means the world to me.
xo
b
Thank you. Wonderful reminder of the math that is all around us.