What if we aimed the Hubble Telescope at Earth?

If you pointed the Hubble telescope at the Earth, what could you see? Could you read over your neighbor’s shoulder? Or would it all just be a big blur?

Henry Reich is the creator of MinutePhysics and executive producer of MinuteEarth and MinuteFood and founder of Neptune Studios (the parent company for all three youtube channels).

Credits
Narrated by and based on "What If?" by Randall Munroe
Written & Directed by Henry Reich
Illustration and Video Editing by Lizah van der Aart
Illustration and Animation by Ever Salazar
Music & Sound Effects by Know Art Studios

What If? The Video Series is the official adaptation of the What If? books by Randall Munroe and is produced by Neptune Studios LLC.

©2023 xkcd, inc.

[Bismuth]

This Randall guy has potential, nice to see up and coming creators.

[Codricmon]

"Narrated by and based on "What if?" by Randall Munroe"

I can't believe they managed to get the actual book to narrate the video!

[CleoAbram]

So glad you're on YouTube! Can't wait to watch every video.

[harrisonirving]

I've been reading xkcd since middle school and I love the webcomic so much. I read each new comic on the day it's released, and have read every comic multiple times. It's a big part of what inspired me to become a physics major. It's great to see it on a new platform.

[FabrisFanatic]

One of the US reconnaissance satellites referred to at the end of this video is known as the KH-11. It's essentially a HST that is designed for staring at the Earth. The US has launched over a dozen of these things in orbit. Makes the HST seem positively quaint by comparison:

[KevinRiggle]

3:14 I'd love a follow-up about how ground-imaging satellites, whether government or commercial, actually achieve their increasingly jawdropping levels of image quality.

[rtchau]

I'd love to see a narrated/animated version of the debut What If.... the relativistic baseball. I've been an xkcd fan forever, so great to see a video version of What If appearing!

[dbp_patel_]

Wow! An official video series adaptation of xkcd stuff?! Thank you so much, Randall and Team! I hope this medium brings your content and ideas to more and more people. As it absolutely should!! Congrats on this new project and all the best to the Team for this endeavour.

[ainsliekr]

It's so cool to see a video version of this! Thanks, Randall!

[RedKincaid]

Xkcd's What If blog was always my favorite thing that Mr. Munroe had ever put out, and I always wished there were more of it. Seeing this pop up on my homepage has me absolutely ecstatic!

[BlastedOblivion]

So...this doesn't kill everyone? Theres a first.

[GideonFrazier]

I love xkcd so much! I have how to and what if and I’ve been a dedicated follower of the webcomic forever. Thank you for putting work on this platform!

[obiwanda]

I miss when the What If? page had regular updates, but excited to see where this channel goes!

[flyguy]

It's great to see you here on YouTube! Some of my favorite books I've read (and of course my favorite webcomic)!

[TheComputerCrasher]

So excited that What If is getting videos now! I've read both books and most of the questions on the website, so I'm very excited to see some new stuff! I instantly came here and subscribed when I saw the MinutePhysics video.

[peterfager]

I'm so glad you did the sound effects of the desk whizzing past Hubble, that was amazing! Your books are awesome and I just got two new people excited about them!

[MrzkA]

Randall Munro you are a unique person, I have read your books, and realized that no one has ever explained more complicated things to me in simple language with humor, so there are also MINI COMICS there!!! I am your big fan, greetings from Kazakhstan🎉🎉🎉

[OtakuUnitedStudio]

Thank you, Randall! I still haven't managed fo get through all of Thing Explainer to move onto What If? Vol. 1 due to life circumstances, so having some of them as videos is a big help. I was a huge fan of them on the main site and still really want to get the books!

[darkenergylambda]

I’ve been reading XKCD for over 15 years. Glad to have it as YouTube channel!

[joechen]

I go to XKCD's What If site many times a week even though there are rarely updates. It's an entertaining read if I need to kill time at work without having to go to social media sites. Super excited to see there's a YouTube channel now!