# All Questions

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### How to calculate the movement of the object passing near other object in space?

Assume object A is moving through the space and is passing near the other object (B). Assume the gravitational influence of other objects can be ignored. How to find the equation describing the ...
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### Present distances between planet. How can I find them?

It's "commonly known" how distant are our solar system planets from Sun. But we can't easily say that about planets, which distances can differ greatly, without some observations (or simulations, ...
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### What is the minimum mass required so that objects become spherical due to its own gravity?

Is this minimum mass known? or maybe, is it given in terms of density? If so, how much density is the minimum to have an spherical object due to its own gravity?
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### Can a black hole reach a limit where it can no longer attract more matter?

Can a black hole reach a limit where it can no longer attract more matter? If so, what happens with that black hole? Does the black hole die? Does the black hole decrease its size?
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### If the Wow! signal was not directed at us, then where?

We probably all know the Wow!-Signal, happened on August 15, 1977. Assume that it wasn't meant for us. What was it pointing at then? The signal at that time came from RA= 19h25m31s ± 10s or 19h28m22s ...
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### What's the furthest object observable by the naked eye from earth?

From XKCD: Caption: 'The light from those millions of stars you see is probably many thousands of years old' is a rare example of laypeople substantially OVERestimating astronomical numbers. So, ...
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### Doesn't gravity attract objects in space until they collide?

If the formula to calculate the force of gravity of two objects is: $$F1 = F2 = G * (M1 * M2/r^2)$$ Why do planets stay in orbit? Or is there another formula at work?
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### Can there be a 2nd possibility deduced from the fact that galaxies are moving away from us?

I just read that according to the BBT the universe is expanding. This is evident from the fact that distant stars (and galaxies) are moving away from us. But it could also happen that the universe is ...
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### 3D Positions of Nearby Stars

I have come across a number of star catalogs that list stars by right ascension and declination, along with other data such as magnitude. Is there a star catalog that lists the 3-D position of stars ...
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### How exactly does does inflation convert random gravity fluctuations into coherent gravitational waves?

In the course of this very enjoyable press announcement, it is mentioned that inflation can create gravity waves by amplifying gravity fluctuations. I do not properly understand this statement. I ...
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### Do we know the exact spot where big bang took place?

If you rewind the universe back 14,7 billion years, all matter were in one spot, and then started expanding. Do we know where this is in reference to our own solar system? And is there anything there? ...
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### What is in the center of the universe?

If the universe has formed & originated by a Big Bang Explosion, then there must be empty space left in the center of the explosion site, as all the matter is travelling at tremendous speeds away ...
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### Why is every year the same number of days despite the gravity in the solar system?

I was just watching a Geoff Marcy talk on YouTube showing how they infer the presence of planets transiting distant stars. The supposed periodicity wasn't always quite regular from what I could see, ...
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### What’s the object between the earth and the sun currently showing in Google maps?

If I select satellite imagery in Google maps and zoom out, the earth is shown in space. It shows light/dark regions correctly updated, but there’s an object between the earth and the sun. It looks too ...
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### What is the connection between moons, rings, and gaps?

I was watching this video and they said that the rock probably has a moon. Is the reason they assume it has a moon is because there is a gap between the rings created by the moon's orbit around the ...
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### Why is only one side of the Moon visible from Earth?

Why do we only ever see the same side of the moon? If this is to do with gravity are there any variables which mean we might one day see more than we have before?
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### find resonance in planet system

I make this program, i have a 2xN matrix in which the columns are the ID of planets and their period, the rows are the number of planets, for istance something like that: ...
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### Is it possible that all dark matter is made of rogue planets (free-floating planet)?

Is it possible that all dark matter is made of rogue planets (free-floating planet)? (and other stuff like asteroids or meteoroids)
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### Build a high quality telescope from scratch

I am interested in building a high quality portable telescope from scratch in an attempt to better understand how telescopes work. What kind of materials do I need? How would I go about putting the ...
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### What is the most extreme weather found on another planet?

On Venus, there is really inhospitable weather, as well as within the gas giants in our solar system. Are there examples of even more extreme weather on planets found in other solar systems than ours? ...
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### Does the gravity of the planets affect the orbit of other planets in our solar system?

When one planet passes near another during its trip around the sun, does their gravitational pull is strong enough to disrupt noticeably each other's orbit ?
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### Does the Sun belong to a constellation?

Each new star we find is generally considered to be part of the constellation it is nearest to. Our Sun is obviously a star, just much closer. Is our Sun part of any constellation? If so, which ...
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### Mechanisms of binary/multiple star formation

What are mechanisms of binary/multiple star formation in different mass ranges (low, intermediate and high stellar masses)?
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### What happens if an astronaut is hit by a tiny micrometeorite? [migrated]

A micrometeorite (including space debris in LEO) hitting the metal wall of the ISS would likely cause a shower of secondary high speed fragments. But there are other "softer" materials proposed which ...
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### Does the holographic principle contradict eternal inflation?

As it is for example explained here, Andrei Linde's chaotic inflation is among the potential winners or survivors of the spring cleaning induced by the potential detection of primoridal gravitational ...
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### How did Bradley arrive at the +/- correct speed of light when he calculated it?

After Bradley discovered stellar aberration and the corresponding constant of aberration he was able to calculate the speed of light, since he knew the speed of the Earth around the Sun. As far as I ...
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### Space objects visible from earth

I recently saw the International Space Station without a telescope. Are there any other man-made space objects that can be seen using bare eyes?
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### How can I calculate what star was above my head when I was born? [closed]

Almost everybody knows the concept of Zodiac. But there are others. And, AFAIK, even Zodiac classification is wrong for nowadays - since the classification of the people's Zodiac Sign was developed ...
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### Why does time get slow near a black hole? [closed]

Why exactly does time get slow around a black hole? And does it provide a way to go into the future?
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### A curious relationship between lunar periods and the solar year

Earlier today I was exploring the astronomy features on WolframAlpha, when I stumbled upon an intriguing numerical relationship involving the values for the lunar synodic and sidereal months. Using ...
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### Is there a fundamental difference between a small galaxy, and a large star cluster?

For instance, If a large globular cluster were somehow ejected from its galaxy, and was observed by astronomers, would they call it a galaxy, or would there be characteristics of the star cluster that ...
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### Do the E and B modes of the CMB polarization have anything to do with electric and magnetic fields?

As explained in this article, as the CMB is created from a vaiable (matter?) density $\kappa$ its gradient $\nabla \kappa = \vec{u}$ can be separated into a gradient and curl part, called the $E$ and ...
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### Why isn't the dark energy getting decreased?

AS the articles on the web suggest, Dark energy is the reason behind the expansion of universe. If so, why isn't it getting used up in doing so. And consequently, the rate of expansion should reduce! ...
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### How do scientists know if an Earth-like planet is really Earth-like?

I'm not sure how scientists determine that a planet is really an Earth-like planet. How do they do it?
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### Galactic Habitable Zone

Do galaxies have habitable zones the same as stars do? Say in a galaxy with a very active nucleus producing a lot of heat and radiation, would there be a point at which no star's planets could harbor ...
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### What must/do astronomers reveal beyond their academic papers?

Academic papers often make claims about observational data and results from computations. The papers only refer to names of data sources (such as an observatory) and of mathematical methods without ...
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### How would an exoplanet be found from earth if our view of its star system is “from the top”?

When we find an exoplanet by observing the dimming of its parent star, this means that the planet passes in front of the star from our view. What if our view of a star system is from its "top" or ...
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### What limits the usable focal length of telescopes currently?

What barriers - of technology, physics and possibly economy (things that would be possible technologically but are simply too expensive) sets the upper bound on quality of telescopes for observation ...
108 views

### What are these faint streaks on the moon?

I was poking around this Gigapan image of the moon's north polar region, when I noticed this area: What is the source of these light streaks? For position reference, here's a zoomed-out shot (I ...
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### why are galaxies different in color?

whether its in movies,television,real-life or some planetarium different galaxies are shown in different color. For ex:- Milky way is always seen in Blue where as Andromeda gives out a bit reddish ...
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### Are we moving away or towards each other?

There are numerous theories about the shape of the Universe. I've read somewhere most probably in 'A Brief History of Time' that there is a possibility that the Universe is spherical. So is it ...
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### Is it possible to grow plants on Mars? [migrated]

If we provide adequate water supply will it be possible to grow plants/seeds/moss/algae (from Earth) on Mars? How different are Mars soil from Earth's soil?
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### How can we predict a Big Crunch when all galaxies are moving further apart?

I've read that the further away a Galaxy is from us the faster it moves away. By this logic how can scientists predict that there will eventually be a big crunch when every piece of matter is ...
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### Why airplane times differ between travels to east and to west? [migrated]

Why does it take longer to fly west to east than east to west? Which factors affects this? Does earth spinning affect the time difference? Maybe the air circulation? Can you please provide the ...
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### Simple life on asteroids

If there were an asteroid orbiting its star within the habitable zone and this asteroid contained liquid water, would it be possible for simple life such as bacteria to form?
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### Is there another explanation, apart from the doppler effect, for the redshift observed in distant galaxies?

On episode 10 of the original Cosmos TV series, Carl Sagan mentions that some scientist don't agree that the redshift observed in distant galaxies is evidence of the big bang, stating that probably ...
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### What is the probability that there is life on other planets?

I would like to know, from a mathematical point of view what is the probability that 1) There is organic life on other planets 2) There are advanced species like us or even greater than us on other ...
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### What is Gravitational Lensing?

What is the effect known as gravitational lensing? How does it work? What objects would be able to cause this effect?