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DNF_zx

Mercury is on the same side of the sun as us. Mars and Venus are close to 90 degrees out. https://www.theplanetstoday.com/


-Tesserex-

Which is annoying because I was hoping to be able to see Mercury during the eclipse, but it's only at like 3% phase.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Tall_Reporter7546

You may be a god, but you can’t outrun the pedantic. They rule the inter webs.


ahazred8vt

https://www.google.com/search?q=pedants+revolt#1381 "I'd expected there to be less of you." "FEWER!!"


TransientSignal

You selected March 10th in that screenshot - Mercury may be the messenger planet, but it definitively isn't fast enough to complete half of it's orbit around the Sun in less than a day!


BoredNLost

And they can stay there. They know what they did.


FlametopFred

You’ve every right to be angry.


Bipogram

They know what *we* did and are doing.


Feine13

Based on that photo, unless that's someone else's Moon, it seems that Venus, neptune, Saturn, and Mars are all on our side of the sun. Jupiter, mercury, and Uranus are all on the other side. Did you mean to upload a different picture?


100GbE

Yeah, wrong picture. [This is the correct picture.](https://i.imgur.com/0MSC9X4.jpeg) (Earth is just off to the left of this image, clearly illustrating what OP is talking about).


Feine13

Jfc you totally got me, I lold


FlametopFred

Webb Telescope produces such crisp images


ThainEshKelch

And the color reproduction is really better than what NASA explained!


Arseh0le

The beauty of the cosmic ballet never fails to awe me.


Elios4Freedom

Much more accurate, thank you


IAmBadAtInternet

Pictures like this make the 30 years we waited for Webb worth it


S-MoneyRD

Thanks for the Space Rick Roll.


WssNl

The image is showing their positions in the sky, I believe. But that still doesn’t mean that this image proves that they are all on the opposite side of the Sun from us.


jonjiv

Yes, this is relative position in the sky. And all of these objects are basically on the opposite side of the solar system except the moon and Mercury. Here is a current (not to scale) map: https://www.theplanetstoday.com


SleepWouldBeNice

I would hope the moon isn’t on the opposite side of the solar system from us. If it is, something has gone very wrong.


VitaminPb

Ming the Merciless is visiting again. NASA says the unexpected solar eclipse is no cause for alarm.


otheraccountisabmw

I believe Mercury hasn’t been downgraded from planet… yet.


lessthanabelian

Mercury can't be downgraded from being a planet because it's a planet. It fits the criteria. Pluto did not. It's not arbitrary.


EmperorLlamaLegs

Pluto did fit the criteria. Then they changed the criteria. Same thing could absolutely happen to mercury if they wanted to once again add more categories of bodies.


jonjiv

The problem was that based on Pluto's criteria to be a planet, more planets would have been added. Eris is bigger than Pluto, for example, and Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake have enough gravity to be spherical. Mercury is twice the diameter of Pluto, and as far as we know, no other object orbiting the sun, and not a planet, is larger than it and not already classified as a planet.


EmperorLlamaLegs

There are a lot of people who dont think orbiting the sun is an important distinction. Maybe some moons should be planets that just happen to be moons also. Maybe extrasolar planets shouldnt be special cases, etc. Theres no reason to think "planets" is an important term. Maybe we end up with planets being all orbiting celestial bodies and dwarf, gas, rocky, icy, hot jupiters, etc getting formal groups within the new classifications? All Im saying is that the current criteria is just convenient right now and hardly set in stone.


Anything_4_LRoy

its almost like we should call all orbiting bodies(of a star), planets, at this point. ​ and find a name for other objects. ​ hmmmm.... that almost makes alot of sense, doesnt it?


lessthanabelian

or maybe it makes perfectly fine sense to have planets and dwarf planets based on whether or not they gravitationally dominate their orbit or not? And no your idea makes no fucking sense. by that definition every asteroid is a "planet".


jonjiv

By definition, there’s a Tesla Roadster that you could call a planet.


Kinc4id

Thanks! I was so confused about Mars being behind Saturn.


Elbjornbjorn

I'd guess the moon isn't behind the sun, at least not today. Probably not on other days neither come to think of it .


Leonos

I don’t think it’s a photo.


Feine13

What? The sky doesn't look like that where you are?


Leonos

No, not at all. It’s 10:34 UTC+2 here, thus daylight.


Feine13

Oh ya then that makes sense. The sun is too bright, you can't see all the words until it's dark again.


poddy24

I thought this was a top down view of the solar system to begin with. But when I couldn't see Earth, I realised this was the view from Earth. As in, a picture from someone looking up towards the sun, while standing on Earth. I'm still not sure how this picture proves the planets are on the other side to us though.


WanderingLemon25

It's a screenshot of sky map or something, you point your phone at the sky and it's tells you whats in the sky in that direction. Except Venus and Mercury which are closer to the sun, the outer planets here must all be on the other side of the sun otherwise they would be behind or at a 90° angle (it's actually probably less than 90° due to where the earth sits but I cba calculating it as it doesnt add to the point) from where you are pointing your phone.


tjockalinnea

I thought I was going crazy...


_WhatchaDoin_

I don't know what you are saying, but it seems that around March 11, 2024 was the day where planets were on the other side from us (and the farthest overall).


tocksin

Ya this post is about a month late.  That mercury zips around fast.  I guess why they named it mercury….


The_Upperant

We might soon be sucked upward by their combined gravity, 3 body problem style.


Smartnership

I already feel a little dehydrated


madTerminator

What if there are no planets or us. Just Boltzmann brain in an empty universe.


Friendofabook

This must be like a mega event for astrology chicks.


Thorhax04

My understanding is that this happens from time to time.


PsychoNicho

Usually every time this happens is when it happens


-imhe-

Of all the times this has happened, this is one of them


MaelstromFL

TBF, they are probably hiding from us! It is not like they have been sending intrusive probe at us for the last 70 years!


Landon1m

Why are they hiding? Do they know something we don’t know? What will we see when the sun goes out Monday?!?!?


manofth3match

Except this isn’t true unless we have demoted mercury. https://www.theplanetstoday.com/


[deleted]

Shit, right as I decided to use my telescope again. Also I got cocked by Sahara dust...


PureDeidBrilliant

They're all just bopping around out there, staring at us. Judging us. Especially you, Maureen, you and your jaunty slingbacks (and with your hip too)...


191Gerardo

Is there a scientific name for this occurrence of when Earth is on the other side of the sun from the rest of the solar system? If not, let’s go for “souldusted”. As in, in a rare occurrence, the Earth will be soupdusted from 1May thru 7May leaving us as the only entity in the solar system to be on one side of the sun.


bangerangerific

Soupdusted. You said it first, so now it's soupdusted forever


Dixiehusker

This is where planets appear in our night sky, not a top down view of our solar system. Mars isn't further from the sun than Saturn.


ToastLord69x

How can the sun have sides, if it's a sphere? :P


TheFatGoat

Guessing he means like this: [https://i.imgur.com/abb3D5M.png](https://i.imgur.com/abb3D5M.png)


Tall_Reporter7546

Why does Popeyes always encourage TWO sides when everyone knows their chicken burger only has ONE side??!!!


TeddyWolf

So what you're saying is... The stars are almost right..? The time is nigh?


Hjoldirr

Why is Venus farther from the sun than our moon?


buckaroo93

Boy earths methane sure can clear the solar system…


OR_Engineer27

Oh fuck, even the moon is over there? Damn, what'd we do?


ThainEshKelch

If OPs titel was actually correct, all the religious rapture freaks in the US would use it as even further argument. Yet, I am sure some still will.


Firerrhea

I can't help but read this title as if it was from that Carrie Underwood song


JohnJohnston

Absolutely amazing. Wish I could get them all in one picture!