# All Questions

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### What is the equation of state for a relativistic fluid/gas?

Say we have a relativistic fluid/gas, as we have in some astrophyical systems. Now let us write: $e$ - energy density in the fluid's rest frame. $P$ - pressure in the fluid's rest frame. $n$ - ...
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### Does matter accumulate just outside the event horizon of a black hole?

My understanding is that time slows and approaches stopping when approaching the event horizon of a black hole. I have seen this explained several places, including a brief explanation in the last ...
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### Is a planetary system star's referred to as their sun?

It's my understanding that the Sun (uppercase) is used to refer to our sun/star, because it is The Sun. Latin name is Sol, hence the Solar System. Even the tag (lowercase sun) on this post has the ...
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### What uncertainty does an error bar signify in astronomy?

When an astronomer talks about her/his topic and shows an X/Y-plot with error bars. What should one assume that those error bars represent? 1 standard deviation? Or 2? Or some specific significance ...
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### Equation of the Center constant factor

This questions concerns the longitudinal aspect of the Equation of Time, also called the Equation of the Center. In some sources the equation looks like the following: $\nu - M = 2\varepsilon \sin M$ ...
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### Would humans hear gravity waves from a binary BH fusion nearby?

The frequency of the gravity waves detected by aLIGO recently were in the audible sound spectra. Actually spanning over half of the keys of a piano, I've been told, during 2/10 or so seconds. Would a ...
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### What are the biggest problems about the numerical, finite-element GR models?

As I know, for example the modelling of the collapse of a neutron star (to a black hole) wasn't done correctly until now. Why? Yes, I know, the Einstein Field Equations aren't really easy to solve. ...
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### Is solar wind a source of water?

Solar wind may contain some hydrogen and oxygen atoms which is the composition of water, some of them may move to the poles of earth, my question is, is solar wind also a source of water in earth?
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### Pinhole Projector: Can I use a specific solar optical eye piece to focus the Transit of Mercury?

The title pretty much explains this one. Can I use a specific solar optical eye piece, or other optical device, in conjunction with the pinhole projector method to focus the Transit of Mercury? ...
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### Plot an AltAz grid over a square grid of RADec points

first post here. As I'm new, StackExchange won't let create or use the wcsaxes tag. wcsaxes looks like the most appropriate tool for the job, but astropy is closely related. I think the title says ...
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### Stellar mass limits for Neutron Star and Black Holes

Don't hate on me if I am asking a very basic and straightforward thing. I have a few questions about black holes and neutron stars. What is the mass range (in terms of solar masses) for a main ...
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### How to find the distance between two quasars

I want to calculate the distance between two quasars of which I know the angular position and the red shift. Let $Q_1=(\alpha_1,\delta_1, z_1)$ and $Q_2=(\alpha 2,\delta 2, z_2)$ and suppose \$z_2 > ...
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### How much time does the ISS take to repeat its orbit?

I used to go to my roof to see the ISS, but it is not always visible. Then it appears again but does it appear with the exact same orbit as I saw before? Thanks!
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### The Blackhole “Creator of Stars” [closed]

I have thought for some time on how Blackholes and Neutron stars behave and interact in the nature of space, Now I know we have made some theory's and are still in the process of observation, we ...
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### What does the Sun's orbit within the Solar System look like?

Everything in the Solar System revolves around the "barycenter": the overall center of mass. This barycenter is not in the center of the Sun. Some articles and essays I've read go so far as to suggest ...
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### Moving from computerised to normal amateur telescope?

A few years ago I purchased a Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT computerised telescope thinking that it would be a perfect to get me into astronomy. The issue is the computer doesn't work at all and manually ...
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### Does this video catch an Eta Aquarid - Earth skimming meteor?

I did a time-lapse animation looking towards the sunrise from Sydney, Australia on 25th of April. You can see it here around 1m 25s in (that link should jump to just before it appears very near where ...
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### Stratospheric Balloon with an Xray camera

Some colleagues and I were planning to launch a stratospheric balloon in December. A thought occurred to me: what if we were to put some sort of xray camera in the payload? We are expecting a maximum ...
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### Does the orbital variation in planetary gravity affect the Sun's corona

Dimitris (see below) argues that the syzygies of the Earth and Venus and those of Mercury, Earth and Jupiter distort the Sun's corona, which in some way affects climate on the scale of hundreds of ...
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### Is there Kuiper belt/Oort cloud like structure in gas giants?

I know gas giants have moons, just like star have planets, how about kuiper belts or Oort Cloud? Is there any corresponding structure in gas giants? If not, why don't they have?
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### What's the bleeding-edge model for how Population III stars are born and evolve?

I'm trying to do a brief literature review to find out what the best current models for population III stellar evolution are. I was hoping that someone with more expertise in the area could perhaps ...
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### Watching the Mercury transit with improvised devices

I have learned that it is not possible to watch the upcoming Mercury transit with the plain eye (using special filter glasses). Is it possible to watch the transit with improvised devices (like a ...
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### Could a pair of binary black holes form within a star?

After the discovery of gravitational waves by LIGO last week the team behind the Fermi gamma-ray telescope released a paper that showed a soft gamma ray burst was detected only 0.4s after the ...
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### Question regarding the Milky Way when calculating galactic space velocities for galaxies

I have been calculating galaxy space velocities (where proper motions are known) in order to measure their orbits of the Milky Way using the method proposed in the appendix of ...
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### Photodetector Question: Does converting an RGB image to grayscale produce the same result as using a grayscale image detector?

FYI my application is not astronomy related, but I know astronomy folks have a lot of knowledge of photodetection and spectrometry instrumentation, so I am seeking this community's help. I'm ...
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### Which moons have cold traps? (i.e. low ecliptic inclination in orbital and rotational axes)

Both the Moon and Mercury have polar cold traps in polar craters, with signs of volatiles. This is of course not as interesting on a moon in the outer Solar System which consists of volatiles anyway. ...
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### Can I use an array of inexpensive cameras as an alternative to a telescope?

The link below describes how an array of inexpensive cameras can create very detailed images. Would this work for astronomy? https://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/CameraArray/
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### Why does Titan have lower surface gravity than the Moon when Titan is more massive?

Reading on Wikipedia I saw that Titan is 80% more massive than the earth's moon but has only 85% the surface gravity. Why is this?
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### Can dark matter decrease the Jeans length?

I am wondering if there are any models of interstellar cloud collapse out there which take dark matter into account. If dark matter has local perturbations or density fluctuations, then that may be ...
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### highspeed black holes or neutron stars on (almost) head-on collision course and kinetic energy

First: I don't think this is a duplicate question. There are related question on mergers of black holes that orbit around each other etc., so please read on. I'm having a hard time picturing what ...
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### Why can't moon light (reflected sun light) turn the sky blue?

Does turning the colour of the sky blue need more luminous light? Does it depend on luminosity or some other factors are also responsible for this phenomenon? Why can't the moon light turn the sky ...
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### How big will Apophis appear?

How big will Apophis appear in the sky at its closest point of approach in 2029? Will it compare to the moon? How long will it linger as it passes?
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### How can one explain the apparent motion of the Sun from a heliocentric point of view?

From a horizontal frame of reference, the path of the Sun looks like a part of a circle in a tilted plane, as shown in this picture: ...
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### Pinhole projector for the Transit of Mercury

Very quick and simple one today. What would be the best/optimal pinhole size for a pinhole projector to observe the transit of Mercury on May 9th? I want to get the optimum between resolution and ...
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### Is there any real chance of getting hit with a meteorite if we build a base on the moon?

I've been reading an article today on how the European Space Agency (ESA) has an interest in building a space village on the moon which will be 3D printed and assembled by robots. Eventually people ...
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### What is the possibility for everyone on earth get sucked into laboratory created black hole? [duplicate]

Assuming that we have created a small scale black hole in earth laboratory, now how big is the chance that we all get sucked into it?
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### Which Planet/Star is it?

I live in north India. About 24° latitude. I can see a very Bright star in sky. Its towards east and high up. Is it Venus , Jupiter, star or anything else? Its not Sirius. I used Orion belt for that. ...
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### Is there any way a meteor can hit at less than escape velocity?

Note: I have figured out one case: The meteor is splash from an impact on a close-in moon. I'm looking for any path from deep space. My understanding is that anything from deep space will ...
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### Calculate right ascension in Zenith at this moment in my location

I've been searching on Internet about how to calculate which RA is in zenith at a given location in a given time but I haven't find anything (or maybe I don't know how to search). Using my star ...
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### Calculating Right Ascension and Declination from Latitude / Longitude / Time

I have a latitude / longitude / time of a location on Earth, I need to calculate the Right Ascension / Declination that's overhead at the time provided. So far I've found out that Right Ascension is ...
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### Why does shell fusion produce more energy than core fusion?

Stars go from the main sequence phase to the red giant branch due to the depletion of hydrogen in the core. As a result, the star contracts and shell hydrogen fusion begins, which apparently produces ...
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### Is extraterrestrial mining more difficult or impractical for bodies without plate tectonics?

This article talks about the possibility of mining Uranium on the moon. Since the Moon lacks the geological forces that have created veins of concentrated minerals on Earth, would extraterrestrial ...
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### How far into the future can we go by traveling close to a black hole?

If we sent someone on a path that passed as near as possible to a black hole without getting pulled in, how far into the future would they go due to time dilation? Let's assume the black hole is 5 ...
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### Why are certain elements so common?

I understand why hydrogen and helium are the most common elements in the universe. I also understand iron, because that's where stellar fusion stops. But why are (specifically) oxygen, carbon and neon ...
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### Are there any electrons inside the sun / a star?

Like the question says, are there electrons inside an active star, or has all the matter been so thoroughly ionized / plasmarized that the electrons are long gone? I ask because it would make sense ...
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### Cluster of fast moving stars

We live in NW Tasmania in a country town and tonight out walking I pointed out a long cluster of stars to my sister as they made an unusual shape but then we realised they were moving really fast - we ...
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### Locations of farthest matter

Regarding matter that has the highest redshifts, do we see such matter in every general direction we look (relative to Earth: up down left right front back)?
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### A good place to start? [duplicate]

I am a high school student (going into 11th grade next year), who will be taking an introduction to astronomy and astrophysics as part of my core curriculum. As such, I would like to get a head start ...