Quote:
Originally Posted by Lune
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Fun fact, the moon doesn't change size at all when it's on the horizon, that's the visual-spatial associational areas in your brain literally magnifying it in post-production for some god damned unknown reason.
Next time, hold your thumb up to a moon low on the horizon that looks large. Then hold your thumb up to a normal moon. You'll find they are pretty much the exact same size.
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I'm not sure that's true, although our brain certainly does a lot of post-processing automatically. However the light from the moon or the sun is being bent by the additional atmosphere it has to pass through to reach you that vantage point. This is also why sunsets look red. However I was wrong to say this would only apply to the moon, it obviously also applies to the apparent disc of the sun.
Still, the moon and sun are different sizes in the sky, just very close. There are undoubtedly other planetary systems in the universe where this is the case, so while it may seem a miraculous coincidence to us, it's almost certainly common. We are handicapped by only having access (outside of telescopes) to our own solar system when it comes to determinig the rarity of things and events in the universe.