# All Questions

31 views

### Why is sodium such a common ion for in ion tails?

I was doing research about ion tails of planetary bodies and noticed that ion tails composed of sodium were common. For example, Mercury and the Moon both have ion tails made of sodium. Why is sodium, ...
132 views

### Is the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image representative of the entire sky?

The Hubble ultra-deep field image is a photograph of an area of sky equivalent to a 1mm x 1mm piece of paper held a metre away from the eye (one thirteen millionth of the entire sky). It contains an ...
39 views

### Could the universe have evolved differently?

Given the initial conditions at the Big Bang, could our universe have evolved any differently? In other words, did the initial conditions predetermine every stage in the evolution of the universe to ...
65 views

### Is dark energy constant?

Does the "amount" of dark energy in the universe change over time, or is it constant? The dark energy I am asking about is the rate of acceleration of the universe's expansion.
29 views

### How LOFAR pass through the ionosphere?

The LOFAR project open a new window in the universe's study because it allows to receive low frequences of the universe that we could not get because of the ionosphere. But I'm wondering how can ...
42 views

### Birthdate differences calculation relative to earths orbit duration

I have got a question as i am trying to figure out what the real difference between the birthdate of my friend and me is. I am born on 1983 6th February 7 am. My Friend is born on 1984 7th February 1 ...
120 views

### What is the ultimate fate of a cluster of galaxies?

We're fairly aware clusters of galaxies drift apart due to space expansion, which will drive them out of each other's cosmic event horizon eventually, leaving them separate, alone, each a single ...
48 views

### Is there a paper on galaxy mergers in clusters of galaxies?

I'm looking for something to cite about galaxy mergers in clusters of galaxies. I need numbers on the frequency of mergers in the outer parts of galaxy clusters vs. the cluster center. In the center ...
13 views

### Estimating the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection

I would like to know how I can estimate the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection of the right ascension and declination ...
20 views

### Beta profile fit of Virgo cluster gas?

I'm looking for the parameters $r_c$, $\rho_0$ and $\beta$ in a $\beta$-profile fit of the Virgo cluster's ICM density. I just can't find a reference for it. Unlike for Coma (Abell 1656) where it's in ...
58 views

### Fate of the Spiral Arms of the Milky Way and Andromeda

In a few billion years, the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide. Chances are, there won't be many spectacular stellar collisions, and there's a pretty good chance that the Solar system (and most ...
61 views

### Thought experiment about the outskirts of the universe [closed]

Suppose I aim at some object that is 13 billion light years away from Earth. Let's assume I have a twin that pilots a ship that travels in infinite speed, meaning that he can reach that object and ...
384 views

### Questions about spiral galaxy arms

I have 2 questions related to spiral galaxies. Firstly, how did the arms form? Why would the stars accumulate into those specific areas? And secondly, why are they still intact? The inner parts of ...
80 views

### Why aren't the farthest objects close to each other?

The last years we find some objects like this : MACS0647-JD which are more than 13 billion light-years away from us. This means that the picture we get was created only some million years after the ...
55 views

### How to identify stars in photographs?

I can look at a star chart and identify things like constellations in the sky. But if I take a picture with my DSLR camera (35mm with a decent zoom lens, no astronomy specific optics), I run into ...
126 views

### With gravitational lensing, is it possible to mathematically compute the correct image of the galaxy that is being distorted?

There's been another report of gravitational lensing in the news. Wikipedia has a good image of an example of gravitational lensing taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This brings me to wonder ...
41 views

### Can the martian dichotomy (SIH) and the moon's formation (GIH) be related?

If we assume that the Single Impact Hypothesis regarding the martian dichotomy (wikipedia) and the Giant Impact Hypothesis regarding the Moon's formation (wikipedia) are true, then is it possible that ...
113 views

### How was an infrared picture of the entire universe taken?

(click to enlarge) How was this picture of the supposed entire universe taken in infrared? Also, why does it seem as though almost all of the matter is in a line formation over the center? It makes ...
101 views

### How do black holes evaporate?

Will black holes evaporate, if they evaporate? When and why do they evaporate? What are the conditions for evaporation? Under what principle do they evaporate?
104 views

### What is the relative time difference between us and a star system in outer layer of our galaxy?

Just curious to know what will be the time difference between someone living on the outer layer of our galaxy and us, considering the known facts that Time is relative to gravity Our sun goes around ...
23 views

### Sensitivity of calculated orbital elements to observational errors

These days, we have some very precise ways of making measurements, but I'm sure it wasn't so in Kepler's day. So I am wondering how astronomers of that time could make such accurate determinations of ...
32 views

### What is the exact position of the Large Magellanic Cloud?

I am not able to visualize the position of the LMC and have not found a satisfactory explanation... Can someone please answer it this way? Relative to a ray joining the Earth to the ...
100 views

### Would bagging an asteroid destroy valuable science about it?

NASA has a plan called "Asteroid Redirect Mission option A". It would robotically put an asteroid of a few meters diameter in a bag and push it into reach of astronauts for thorough examination. 44 ...
44 views

### Original Hubble diagram units incorrect?

Figure 1 from Hubble 1929 has velocity with units of km. Is this just a typo or was there a reason the plot is printed this way?
122 views

### Are there stars that don't emit visible light?

Are there stars that do not emit any light in the visible part of the EM spectrum?
68 views

### What did I see streaking across the sky last night?

I was enjoying a casual naked eye view of the summer sky last night around midnight in a new jersey beach town. The sky was pretty clear for around here.The Milkyway was just visible and there was no ...
69 views

### Maximum Amplitude of a Lissajous Orbiting Object in a L4 or L5 Position

I stumbled on The Lagrangian points during some wikipedia reading. After looking at the gravity contours, I naturally come to the conclusion that the L4 & L5 should have a wave pattern and then ...
41 views

### World line coordinate finiteness

If you trace two particles' world line backwards in time, according to current theory, both objects should converge at big bang. Would both objects arrive there simultaneously? Another way of asking ...
227 views

### Why do (most of) the planets rotate counterclockwise, i.e. the same way the Sun does?

Referring to the mechanisms explaining the solar system formation and to the initial rotation of the gaseous cloud that collapsed, I understand easily why the planets orbit the Sun the same way this ...
63 views

### Can the Gaia telescope detect small temporarily captured asteroids near its Lagrange orbit?

The Gaia space telescope is in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2. The orbit period is about 180 days and the size of the orbit is 263,000 x 707,000 x 370,000 km. It has been ...
15 views

### Any results from the B-mode CMB polarization measurements?

Why is the relation between primordial gravitational waves of the early universe, and the minor polarization deviations of the cosmical microwave background? AFAIK the CMB is coming from the 300000 ...
159 views

### Why do astronomers like green laser pointers? [closed]

When I've been to Astronomy-nights for the public at the local observatory, they always used green lasers to point things out. Why is there such a preference for green lasers? What's wrong with red ...
40 views

### Time after sunset until star can be seen

Given a star's apparent location and apparent magnitude, how how many degrees below the horizon must the sun be for the star to be visible to the naked eye for an observer on Earth at a specified ...
42 views

### Why do some celestial bodies have atmospheres, and not others?

Question is rather self-explanatory. An answer touching upon how/why atmospheres are formed in the first place would be ideal as well. An example of such astral bodies would be The Earth and it's ...
34 views

### Star System Formation questions

I'm making a game in which I'd like to randomly generate star systems. Which is cool. The trouble I'm having is working out exactly what limits I need to place on the generation. So far, the ...
76 views

### Can we see the Big Bang happen if we look far enough?

The observable universe is constantly expanding as more light from the Big Bang reaches us. This light has been travelling for billions of years, so we are looking at the universe as it was a few ...
79 views

### How many light years away is Earth from the closest outer edge of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?

How many light years is Earth away from the closest outer edge of the supermassive black hole in Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way? I don't mean the distance to the center of the galaxy, ...
41 views

### Which spiral arm of the Milky Way is Kepler-62 in?

I am trying to find out which spiral arm of the Milky Way the star Kepler-62 and its planetary system are in. All I can find by Google searching is that it is part of the Lyra constellation, but I ...
62 views

### How did the reionization epoch make the universe “transparent”?

I've been reading about the reionization epoch of the universe, and it isn't entirely clear to me. As I understand it, very shortly after the big bang the universe was ionized, with the electrons ...
79 views

### what is the farthest object we've been able to bounce signals off of to date?

I know people bounced lasers off of Venus and Mercury in 1960s in order to test the Shapiro delay. Since then, we've developed higher-power lasers and radio transmitters (Bolshakovo transmitter). ...
67 views

### Are there standard algorithms and procedures for creating unique sky maps based on latitude/longitude/date/time?

I am trying to build an astronomy app that will use the user's latitude and longitude, along with the current date and time, to create a 3D view of the celestial sphere as seen based on that data. ...
111 views

### Why don't planets give off their own light? [closed]

Why don't the planets glow like stars?
131 views

### Will an observer falling into a black hole be able to witness any future events in the universe outside the black hole?

I know someone or something sucked into a black hole could not survive, but is the bending of light so immense that an observer falling into a black hole will be able to witness any future events in ...
36 views

### Can solar luminosity & activity be predicted?

Can a star's luminosity and its activity, solar flares and sunspots, be predicted? If so, with what accuracy & precision?
25 views

### What are possible methods of discerning a starburst AGN composite galaxy?

I'm currently working on an independent project that involves discerning starburst galaxies that are themselves within active galaxies. I would assume radio observations would be best to discern star ...
71 views

### What's an order-of-magnitude main sequence star look like?

I'm looking for a very rough, order-of-magnitude approach to the main sequence. What I mean is, I have a spherically-symmetric hydrogen distribution. I'm looking to get a rough approximation for ...
61 views

### Multiple apparent lunar eclipses last night

I saw something very strange last night that I'm hoping someone can help me explain. I was sitting on my roof with a night-cap at about 3am last night. The moon, about the last quarter, was low in the ...
152 views

### Why aren't there galaxy-sized balls of iron out there?

Since we know that stars burn out, collapse, or blow up when too many of their atoms fuse inti iron, then how come, with all the ancient galaxies we've been observing, there isn't one galaxy whose ...