Which continents on earth would an observer from the moon see?

[Extollager]

AI was no help. Maybe y'all can answer my question.

We see the same side of the moon from earth. Now, does an observer on the moon see all of the earth over a period of time? Or is only one side of the earth ever visible to an observer on the side of the moon turned towards us?

 

[Overread]

If the side of the moon facing the Earth is always constant and if all regions of the Earth eventually see the moon then it stands to reason that from the Moon you'd eventually see all regions of the Earth from one spot on the Moon. Or at least if not seeing every region you'd see a full rotation of the Earth.

Also my experience of AI is that its really good at making stuff up and sounding really confident about it. It can get common questions right because they are asked and answered a LOT online for it to pull from; but it can also just randomly come up with the wrong answer.

 

[Pyan]

I'd be interested to see what AI said, because common sense tells you that if you can see the Moon from anywhere on Earth, then the reverse must be true.
AI as a name seems to be only half accurate, in that it's definitely artificial, but...

 

[Dave]

Since 7 hours ago SFF Chronicles is now the top answer for this on Google. Well done @Overread !

The AI answers there seem confused and some don't answer the question at all, but here are a few that almost do:

The Earth appears about four times larger in the lunar sky than the moon appears in Earth's sky. Because the moon is tidally locked to the Earth, the Earth does not appear to translate across the sky. It stays in the same place and appears to both rotate and pitch a little.

Our Moon spins on its axis so that as it orbits the Earth, it always presents the same face to the Earth. As a result, when viewed from the Moon, the Earth will always remain in about the same spot in the sky all the time!

And is it possible to watch our planet spinning from somewhere in space? The answer depends on the time frame and your perspective. Earth spins much too slowly for its rotation to be visible from anywhere in real time.

Regarding the last answer, I think I'm right in saying that period of time is known as one day.

But that is just from one side of the Moon. The other side that we can't see, obviously can never see us at all.

 

[Karapace]

AI was no help. Maybe y'all can answer my question.

We see the same side of the moon from earth. Now, does an observer on the moon see all of the earth over a period of time? Or is only one side of the earth ever visible to an observer on the side of the moon turned towards us?

All of them, unless you were stood on the dark side and then all you would see is a triangle with prismic colours coming off it

 

[Overread]

Since 7 hours ago SFF Chronicles is now the top answer for this on Google. Well done @Overread !

Yay I'm famous!

And yeah AI right now is not actually "AI". It's a very advanced copy-paste machine.
The thing is it basically has no concept of context which is why it can do things like create artwork with multiple fingers or why fine details are often really just wrong when you look at them. Because fundamentally it doesn't know what any of those things are - it just takes LOADS of images of things tagged like that and sort of sticks them together into a composite invention of its own. There's more layers to it of course and honestly with the vast wealth of data the internet presents it is doing a pretty good job of appearing to know what its doing.

But as this question shows unless LOTS of people have asked the same question and framed it the same way and tagged it and all; then it can get the wrong end of the stick; or it can give you an answer that's made up from multiple other answers that is a sentence but is utterly wrong on details.

Heck the internet itself is an unreliable data source. There are LOADS of incorrect things on it.

 

[Extollager]

As so often, the expression we all start using is questionable in itself. Artificial "intelligence" doesn't exist, as probably most people here recognize, but I'm not so sure about many others. We'd be better off if people used "ersatz intelligence," as veteran sf fan Dainis Bisenieks proposes in the current Lofgeornost apazine for FAPA -- except that "ersatz" is probably unfamiliar to most under-60s and its sting would in any event be lost on most.

 

[Swank]

I would think Antarctica could be a challenge. The moon is overhead the equator, and the poles barely get any moonrise above the horizon.

And if you can't see the Urals, can you 'see' Europe?

 

[chornedsnorkack]

I would think Antarctica could be a challenge. The moon is overhead the equator, and the poles barely get any moonrise above the horizon.

And if you can't see the Urals, can you 'see' Europe?

No, Moon orbit has inclination of 18 to 28 degrees to Earth equator.
On each pole of Earth, Moon would not rise and set daily, like Sun does not rise and set daily there. Moon would rise and set monthly there just like Sun rises and sets yearly there.
Which means that you would see the edge of Antarctica almost all time, but South Pole would be visible for just half the month. And it would be on the dark side of gibbous Earth, for half a year.

 

[Swank]

No, Moon orbit has inclination of 18 to 28 degrees to Earth equator.
On each pole of Earth, Moon would not rise and set daily, like Sun does not rise and set daily there. Moon would rise and set monthly there just like Sun rises and sets yearly there.
Which means that you would see the edge of Antarctica almost all time, but South Pole would be visible for just half the month. And it would be on the dark side of gibbous Earth, for half a year.

You're right. I found a bad reference.

But it is hard to see a continent "on edge".

 

[chornedsnorkack]

You're right. I found a bad reference.

But it is hard to see a continent "on edge".

For example, consider a view of full earth from moon:

Solar eclipse - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org