The photo illustration above shows what a photo of a sunset here on Earth would look like if the sun were replaced with Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in our “neighborhood.”

The Russian Federal Space Agency recently released a couple of “Alternative History” videos that imagine what the sky would look like if the Sun were replaced with other stars and if the moon were replaced with planets in our solar system.



If the Sun Were Replaced with Other Stars

The video above shows what the sky would look like if the sun were replaced with Alpha Centauri (a binary star system), Sirius (the brightest star system in the sky), Arcturus, Vega, and Polaris (the North Star). Of course, this only takes into account relative size and not the fact that Earth and mankind would no longer exist due to the difference in gravity and heat.

Alpha Centauri

Sirius

Arcturus

Vega

Polaris

If the Moon Were Replaced with Other Planets

The second video above shows what the sky would look like if our moon were replaced with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Earth.

Mercury

Venus

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Earth

Back in 2013, we also shared a couple of views showing what landscape photos would look like if Earth had Saturn’s rings and if the moon were the distance of the ISS.

Image credits: Videos and photo renderings by Roscosmos