What would you see during a solar eclipse if the moon was smaller than it is now?
Question:
Answer:
a bigger ring of light around the moon.
blindness
If the moon were smaller than it is , now ,
the gravitational pull would cause it to move further , and finally orient itself so that we see the same , good ol' eclipse
It would look like the moon just bit a chunk out of the suns center. Just like during partial eclipses and annular eclipses (when the moon IS smaller than the suns disk because the moon is in apogee).
If the Moon was a bit smaller than today you would not see total solar eclipses at all and only annular solar eclipses would be visible (as well as partial ones). Annular eclipses of the Sun do exist today but they are rare, as the Moon has to be positioned at its longest distance from the Earth for this to happen.
But if the Moon was really really small, you would no longer witness an eclipse. Instead, you would see the Moon transiting the Sun. That would look similar to the transit of Venus in 2004 (see photo in the link provided).
Using G=m1xm2/r^ , we can deduce that, if the mass of the moon was half than it is now, its distance from earth will be SqRt2=1.44 times as it is now. Similarly, if the mass was 1/3rd, the distance would be sqrt3 times. It has to be so, because it must revolve faster, now that it is smaller, to prevent the centripetal force of earth.
As a consequence, eclipse will be for a short duration and less covering(partial) due to the angular dimension of the moon (arc=r x theta).
that was not a complete solar eclipse you see a ring of light around the moon
The sun would never be completely obscured by the moon.
There would not be a total eclipse.
There would always be a circle of light around the edge.
You would see an Eclipse.
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