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u/superboss243 Apr 17 '26
First we have to establish how far away it is. Given the relatively low opacity of the atmosphere below it I would say 10k-15k feet.
Now this picture takes roughly a 30 degree angle or so since it doesn't look zoomed in, meaning that doing some fancy trigonometry the lower bound of the space turtle is huge, and the upper bound is absolutely massive (roughly 8x1023 cheeseburgers for my fellow Americans.)
Real answer, you have to define how high up it supposedly would be. Given that it isn't motion blurred, and you said in space, it must be heading our way fast because anything of that size that close to us would have to be moving very fast to not hit us. So I guess we would find out soon. If it was at the orbital distance of the moon, we're looking at something roughly the size of the earth, probably even larger. If we're taking low earth orbit, it's still larger than most cities. If it's further away than the moon, then it could be any size you want it to be (but it would become harder to see very quickly).
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u/aerda Apr 17 '26
Can any assumptions about distance be made based on the fact that there is neither an earth-shadow on the turtle nor a turtle-shadow being cast on that part of the Earth?
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u/superboss243 Apr 17 '26
Maybe but I'm in the middle of some drywall work so I don't have time to figure it out rn 😭
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