# All Questions

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### How to find RA 0

I am standing in an open area and can see the sky for a full 360 degrees. I have the coordinates of an object (RA and DEC). Where do I look to find RA 0?
33 views

### Is starquake unique to neutron star?

I read from somewhere that astronomer use X-ray to observe the "shaking" not to be confused with wobbling of a distant neutron star, I think it is similar to what geologist using microphone to ...
69 views

### What triggers solar flares?

The sun is a big ball of hot plasma which contains free electrons. However, how does the absence of metallic elements in the sun generate the magnetic field to orchestrate these free electrons to ...
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### Mass resolution

Can someone define mass resolution in terms of cosmological simulations such as the millennium simulation? Is it just the smallest mass that a dark mater particle can have and still be detected by the ...
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### Does our sun/solar system orbit around any other celestial objects? [duplicate]

Does our solar system orbit around another massive celestial object? Like a massive star or black hole for instance? From my understanding our sun rotates around the centre of our galaxy, thus our ...
71 views

### Why did Venus not lose its atmosphere without magnetic field?

It is often stated that the magnetosphere not only shields the planet from cosmic radiation, but also prevents atmosphere loss. Why did then Venus not lose most of its atmosphere if it doesn't have a ...
51 views

### Precessing of the Earth

It's been known that the Earth's axial tilt varies from 22.5 to 24.5. Does this result in a wobbling while the value of the tilt varies about these two limits? If so, how does it affect the mechanics ...
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### Shadows of Light = Space or Dark Matter?

Perhaps my title is misleading. but here is my understanding and I'm looking for confirmation. You cannot have dark without light. The only thing faster than light is darkness (i.e. shadows) Stars ...
724 views

### How long until we cannot see any stars from other galaxies?

Since all the galaxies are moving further away from each other at a faster and faster rate, eventually we won't be able to see stars from other galaxies. How long until we can't see stars from other ...
29 views

### Was the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation originally gamma rays?

I believe that sometime after Big Bang the entire universe was filled with high energy particles. Now we fast forward to the present; most of these particles still linger and managed to avoid being ...
333 views

### Where does energy at the beginning of a star's lifecycle (before any nuclear reactions) come from?

David Christian's Maps of Time has this to say about the period during which the first stars started to form from the diffuse clouds of hydrogen and helium that then made up the universe: Under ...
44 views

### Will the Universe end by time stopping?

I know there are several theories as to how the universe might end, if it does. Is it possible for it to end by time stopping? A friend of mine told me about this theory, but her explanation that it ...
44 views

### How do I get from Star Atlas to real life?

This question is about finding the elevation and bearing of a given star at a particular time at Latitude 52N. I look up the RA and Declination of my star. How do I calculate its RA and elevation at ...
317 views

### Why are galaxies disk shaped?

I always see galaxies in "disk" shape in pictures. It is like, there is a rotational movement on a plane and the system is balanced by the pulling-in gravitational force which prevents the stars to ...
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### How do astronomer measures the size of any celestial objects?

What techniques and tools are available to the astronomers to measure the size of any celestial objects such as, stars or perhaps black holes that doesn't emit light nor reflects starlight?
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### How does one measure velocities of far-off, bright objects

As the title already says, I want to know how one measures velocities of far-off, bright objects, e.g. when the mean parallax drift isn't measurable with current apparatus (this means when there is ...
38 views

### Do astronomers and astrophysicists more often use diameters or radii when discussing about planets, dwarf planets, exoplanets and stars?

Mathematicians much more often use radii over diameters when discussing about circles and spheres, because in mathematics the radius is more fundamental than the diameter (the sphere is defined using ...
66 views

### What came first: the Sun shining or the existence of helium?

This seems to be a chicken and egg problem, the sun begins shining due to hydrogen becoming helium, but it's odd that there was no helium initially without the stars. Is my logic flawed? (Note: ...
50 views

### What kinds of technologies are required to directly image exoplanets

I have read that immensley powerful telescopes such as the European Extremley Large Telescope will be able to directly image the atmospheres of exoplanets, and even determine their rotation rates. I ...
94 views

### How many arms does the Milky Way galaxy have?

How many arms does the Milky Way galaxy have and how is it determined?
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### Simulation packages or theory to work with gravitational collapse of massive molecular clouds?

So, I am getting interested in gravitational collapse of large molecular clouds that fragment and collapse into multiple stars. Are there well-known popular academic simulation packages that simulate ...
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### What type of star does theory predict should be the most massive?

The most massive known stars are Wolf-Rayet stars. However, as Wolf-Rayet stars do not appear to be the first stage of any star's lifecycle, I infer that whatever these Wolf-Rayet stars used to be ...
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### Why do dark objects look white from a distance? (Moon, Ceres, but not Earth!)

What makes the Moon shine white in the sky, although it seems to be as dark as asphalt? Earth's average albedo is 3 and 4 times that of the Moon and Ceres respectively (0.37 vs 0.12 and 0.09). But ...
43 views

### Statistics to prove handedness of the universe

There are some papers discussing a potential handedness of the universe: GalaxyZoo: the large-scale spin statistics of spiral galaxies in the SDSS, Longo with Detection of a Dipole in the Handedness ...
32 views

### axial tilt of uranus [duplicate]

Simple question: I read that the axial tilt of Uranus is 97.77 degrees. I don't understand why it would be this instead of 82.23 degrees the other way. It seems like saying that the Earth's axial tilt ...
27 views

### What do cosmologists mean when they talk about “the running of the spectral index”?

All I know is that the spectral index is related to the CMB, and that it has to be slightly less than 1 to favor inflation.
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### What is the bluest narrow band filter mounted on ground based telescopes?

If we want to check a QSO's lyman alpha narrow band image, could a ground based telescope do that? I mean under the circumstance that its lyman alpha shifts to 3300A.
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### Is there a connection between black holes and dark matter/energy?

Is there a spatial or gravitational relationship between black holes and dark matter/energy?
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### Is dark energy evenly spaced throughout Universe?

Are there certain parts of the Universe that are expanding faster than others? Is there anyway to definitively measure this?
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### What's the cheapest research-level telescope?

Like the title says, what is the most low-powered (cheapest) research-level telescope there is? Is there any in the consumer price range (e.g. at the cost of a new car)? Of course, scientists probably ...
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### LIGO and Fabry–Pérot interferometer

I was currently reading about how LIGO works, it uses the basic principle of a Michelson interferometer, and the laser it uses is infrared laser with 1064nm. so from what I know about interference and ...
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### Why does Mars' experience an 'ice age' at high axis obliquity, when Earth experiences an ice age at low axis obliquity

This paper here goes into some detail about how Mars' experiences its own form of 'ice ages' on a quasi periodic basis driven by the wobbling of its axis. The main mechanism outlined is that the ...
48 views

### What will the mass of the new galaxy be?

When the Milky Way galaxy collides with the Andromeda galaxy, what will the mass and volume of the new galaxy be?
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### Affordable night sky photography

As an amateur with limited budget, I'd be interested in taking photos of the night sky, trying to capture more detail than human eye armed with a lens of comparable parameters to what I have in my ...
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### Is it possible that the Sun has a binary partner (the Nemesis Theory) that has eluded detection?

I just recently learned about the theory that our Sun has a small companion star with a 26 million year orbit. This theory came about when it was realized that mass extinction events happened ...
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### Could we detect an earth-like planet around another star?

Could we detect an earth-like planet (e.g. similar distance from star, and similar size) with current planet finding techniques? If an earth-like planet were orbiting our nearest star, excluding the ...
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### Why do astronomers use supernova to measure distance in space?

Why can't the distances between our Sun and the celestial objects be measured directly and instead had to rely on looking around for supernova? Is these events frequent, evenly distributed and lasting ...
47 views

### Why are the high density regions in outer space black holes?

The escape velocity of an object is given by the following formula. $$v_e=\sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}}=\sqrt{\frac{2 \mu}{r}}= \sqrt{2gr}$$ As far as I am aware, the mass of the star which formed the black ...
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### North Pole Right Ascension/Declination to axial tilt conversion

Wikipedia , on several asteroid articles, claims that right ascension and declination of the North Pole can give you the axial tilt of the object. What formula is used to convert these 2 values into ...
42 views

### What mechanism could have formed the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum rift-like gravity anomalies?

According to the NASA JPL web-report, Gravity Gradients Frame Oceanus Procellarum, a rift-like ring structure surrounding the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum has been detected as a gravity anomaly by the ...
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### Are galaxies moving away from us faster than before?

Are all galaxies moving away from us at constant speed even those that may be moving in our direction as the space is being formed? How does nothingness appear to push matter? A black hole sucks as ...
75 views

### The tidal locking problem concerning Earth sized planets in habital zone around Red Dwarfs

Would twin planets orbiting around each-other present a solution to tidal locking of habitable planets in Red Dwarf systems. It's an awfully easy equation to set up....oh ok I'm fibbing I can't do it. ...
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### How many sun-like stars are there in the universe?

After yesterday's announcement of the Kepler telescope finding a huge amount of newly observed exoplanets, i saw a headline claiming that as much as 22% of sun like stars in the universe have planets ...
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### Expansion of Space

If Space is expanding between the Galaxies then why isn't it also expanding between the Stars within the Galaxies as well ? In fact why isn't Space expanding within our Solar System ?
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### Does “Dark Matter” really exist?

Does dark matter really exist or is just a made-up theory in order to cover up the loopholes in the Big Bang theory, and also to explain why universe is expanding at an accelerated rate?
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### When is Gamma Draconis closest to the zenith in London on April 4th

I am reading Roobert Hooke's paper An attempt to prove the motion of the earth from observations (1674, faksimile). Hooke writes The principal dayes of doing which will be about the 4 of April, ...
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### How to calculate the expected surface temperature of a planet

I'm writing a program to generate solar systems but I'm having trouble calculating the expected temperature of a planet. I have found a formula to calculate this, but I haven't been able to get a ...
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### What's the mass of the interstellar neighborhood of the Sun?

What's approximatively the mass of the interstellar neighborhood of the Sun ? (for example the neighborhood of radius 50 light-years). Remark: The mass of the observable matter should be completed ...