Video shows what planets would look like if they were closer to Earth

If you've ever wondered what other planets would look like if they were closer to Earth, then wonder no more.

It's pretty amazing to think that despite the Moon being a whopping 384,400 km away from Earth and the Sun is around 93 million miles away, we can still see them from our planet.

Depending where you are in the world, it's likely you'll see both the moon and Sun on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, it's less common for us to see our surrounding planets in our solar system.

But, if they were just that little bit closer, seeing such sights could be a regular occurrence.

It's quite difficult to imagine what the likes of Venus and Mars might look like if they happened to be nearer to Earth - so amateur astronomer Nick Holmes did it for us.

In a video shared to his YouTube page, yeti dynamics, Nick managed to portray what the planets would look like in the sky if it was to replace our current Moon.

Getty Stock Image

Mars and Venus aren't dramatically bigger than our Moon, but Neptune (which has a radius of around 24,622 km) is definitely more obvious - and Uranus is only marginally bigger.

Now if Jupiter was to be located 384,400 km away, we'd definitely know about it as from Nick's video, the planet would take up a lot of our sky.

And, if you look close enough, you can even spot some of Jupiter's moons orbiting around the planet.

Saturn is also a pretty spectacular sight as we'd be able to see the planet and its rings in all its beauty.

Pretty crazy to see, huh?

yeti dynamics/YouTube

Explaining how he created the video, Nick explained in the video's description: "I created an Earth Moon system in 3dsmax, with accurate sizes and accurate orbital distances.

"I then matched video of the real Moon with my video camera, against my model. I also researched the correct FOV of my video camera. I used both methods to verify my Virtual camera's FOV (around 47 degrees).

"I next modeled up the rest of the planets in proper scale (Real values) set at the distance of the moon (also real values), created the animation of them rotating around, and composited the whole bunch."

Impressive work, Nick.

Topics: Space, YouTube, Viral

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

@niamhshackleton