And blow it to pieces. It would be messy for a while, and random poofs would appear on Earth as pieces hit the ground. Yeah, some people would die, and it would basically put an end to the space program. But it would so totally be worth it, don't you think?
From here, via The Daily What
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ReplyDeleteI've watched this several times now and I can't get over how beautiful it is.
1. The reflective light at night would put a serious damper on visible-light astronomy.
2. We can only imagine what effect staring at rings in the sky would have had on the development of our mythology.
3. I notice that the film maker chose not to deal with the significant effect the ring shadow would have on the climate during winter months -- some latitudes would experience a solar eclipse lasting weeks at a time!
4. Oh, yeah, and people in the tropics would be subject to giant burning rocks falling from the sky at random intervals...
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment! Hadn't considered #'s 1 and 2, but I had noted that the effect of the shadow was omitted. On the other hand, I hadn't thought through to realize that the shadow would be necessarily a winter effect- that the shadow would only fall on a hemisphere during its winter. And with respect to #4, yeah, but like I said, it would be totally worth it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, another couple of things that had occurred to me since I posted this were that the position of the shadowed portion of the rings in the night sky would make a very convenient "ring dial," a time keeper like a sun dial. Which in turn would have made for a very different history of navigation.
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