I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t lost in the inner solar system. Currently I’m stuck on the third dot - how do I proceed?
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The picture shows today’s XKCD comic.
Transcript:
[A grayed-out sentence in the Times New Roman font reads "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically". The "O" in "Optimistic" is dark black and indicated as representing the Sun (not to scale). The dots of the letters "i" in the sentence are similarly dark black. The dot in the first "i" in "Optimistic" is indicated as representing Mercury; the dot in the second "i" represents Venus; the dot in the third "i" represents Earth. The dot in the "i" in "aliens" is indicated as representing Mars. The dot in the "i" in "typographically" is indicated as representing Jupiter. A measurement bar indicates that the distance between the "O" and the third "i" in "Optimistic" is equivalent to 1 AU (astronomical unit).]
[Caption below the panel:]
Space tip: if you're ever lost in the inner Solar System, you can just type out the phrase "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically" in Times New Roman and use the dots as a map.
Becomes slightly more intuitive when you remember there’s an asteroid belt in the middle that maybe would’ve grabbed up enough stuff to form into a planet if Jupiter wasn’t messing with it the whole time.
I was curious so I looked, Wikipedia says the asteroid belt currently contains only about 3% the mass of the moon. I definitely thought it would be more!
Asteroid belts are really sparse. Those scifi space fights in asteroid fields with constant bobbing and weaving could probably only happen within a few years of a planet being blown up. Anything that dense would be condensed into larger bodies very quickly. Turns out space is a whole lot of nothing