# All Questions

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### How to convert horizontal coordinates using NOVAS?

I'm using NOVAS 3.1. I know that I can convert equatorial coordinates to horizontal coordinates using the equ2hor function. Is it possible to make NOVAS do the ...
253 views

### Find constellation over Earth coordinates on a specific date-time

I would like some help in finding the exact constellations, or some sort of visualization of the stars over an specific location an time. The idea is to find out the closest star or group of stars on ...
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### damage from an Asteroid

If an Asteroid, the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs , passed by very close to the Earth but still remained outside of Earth's atmosphere, would it cause any damage ?
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### How did water get on Earth

I recently read that water more then likely got here by comets (carrying water) hitting the Earth. However it also it says the impact of a comet hitting the Earth is much greater then an atomic bomb. ...
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### How can you determine the initial volume of a planet's atmosphere?

Since the surface pressure of a planet is determined by the mass of the column of gasses above it one would surmise that to determine the pressure you must know the volume and mass of the atmosphere. ...
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### What is the direction of the movement of the solar system in relation to the galaxy's plane

I got from this answer that the axis of the solar system is tilted of about 63 degrees in relation to that of our galaxy, so I can assume that we move through space (at least locally) roughly in a ...
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### Do we still use the term “astronomical unit” nowadays?

An astronomical unit is defined as the measurement of distance between Earth and our Sun, my question is since distances between celestial objects beyond our solar system are vast and unimaginable ...
282 views

### Aren't there more naked-eye-visible stars in the Milky Way plane?

Most stars which are visible to the naked eye are within 1,000 light years. The Sun is inside the Orion arm which has a diameter of about 3,500 light years. Thus, all stars (with very few exceptions) ...
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### How does radio bandwidth restrict the choice and use of science payload on interplanetary probes?

I asked a question here about returning to Earth a physical memory capsule along with soil samples, as a complement to radio operations as today. This might return a much larger amount of data ...
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### average number of exoplanets in a system

I was just wondering what the normal amount of planets is in a star system, because in my mind 8 planets seems like a relatively large amount. so are we above average? can we even see all the ...
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### Gravitational pull needed to keep a gas in atmosphere

How can you determine the gravitational force needed to keep a particular gas in the atmosphere of a planet (for example, carbon dioxide (CO2))? I came across the following formula ...
701 views

### How much of the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye from earth?

When we see the Milky Way on a dark night are we seeing the bulk of the galaxy, or just our local arm? How much of the milky way is visible to the naked eye on a dark night?
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I have, for years, been an Astronomy and physics nerd. For the first while, I was a total astronomy nerd. Then I slowly transitioned into physics and have been, for less than a year, a physics nerd. ...
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### Is there a simple, analytical formula for the lunar phase brightness curve?

Brightness of the lunar disk varies as a function of phase angle. This phenomenon is very well established, as is the increase in brightness at low phase angles. Is there a simple analytical formula ...
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### What is the typical resolving power of the largest optical telescopes?

I'd like to estimate the typical resolving power of the largest optical telescopes. I've calculated the theoretical resolving power of the VLA for 21 cm light, R=\frac{\lambda}{B}=\frac{2.1 \times ...
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### When we see the Sun, do we actually see its past?

The Sun's rays hit our eyes around 8 minutes after they are emitted from the Sun. Does this mean that the Sun that we see is always the Sun as it was some 8 minutes before? I strongly think this must ...
138 views

### Is stacking welder's glasses a safe way to watch at the eclipse?

You can find in many place on the Internet that welder's glass #14 is good for looking at an eclipse. Tomorrow (March, 20th 2015 at 10:45 CET) there's a solar eclipse and yesterday I could only find ...
120 views

### What is the Northernmost Latitude of Saturn?

My wife and I were watching a TV show last night, which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts circa 1693. One character went to a particular place in the woods at a particular time to be exactly under ...
172 views

### Sky view from Stellarium software vs. Sky view with naked eye

I'm slowly starting to interest in astronomy. Currently I'm enjoying in stargazing but unfortunately place where I live is very light polluted. I'm planing my vacation in a couple of months and one ...
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### Gravitational waves detector arm length and GW wavelength

What is the relation between the arm length of gravitational wave detectors and the wavelength of target gravitational waves? For example, LIGO detector has 4 km arms and detects waves with 10^2-10^4 ...
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### .2015: When last did both New/Full moon in a fort-night cause an Eclipse?

Going through http://earthsky.org/…/dates-of-next-lunar-and-solar-eclipses I made the (what was for me - momentous) discovery that March 20, 2015 - New moon - is a Solar Eclipse, and that the ...
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### Why solar eclipse paths are symmetrical?

Reading upon the eclipse of March 20, 2015, I stumbled upon this page: http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list-solar.html. What caught my eye is that for each year there are two eclipses whose paths ...
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### How rare are earth-like solar eclipses?

Solar eclipses on the earth are so spectacular because the moon has roughly the same size as the sun when viewed from the earth's surface. This is an incredible coincidence, and my guess is that it is ...
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### What kind of telescope do I need to see most of the Jupiter's moons?

I have a simple Newtonian reflector telescope. Using it, I am able to see the Galilean moons of Jupiter. However, Jupiter has much more moons than that (Wikipedia says 67 have been discovered this ...
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### How to learn data analysis for radio telescope?

I have done some research about Radio Astronomy to build a radio telescope with a number of arrays. I have read one of the prerequisites of working with radio telescope is a good knowledge about ...
156 views

### In theory, is there anywhere in the universe where velocity=0?

Earth is traveling at a certain velocity. Earth orbits the Sun at velocity X. The sun is orbiting the center of our galaxy at velocity Y. The galaxy is orbiting (something?) at velocity Z. On and ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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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 ...
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### 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 ...
383 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 ...
71 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 ...
489 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 ...
152 views

### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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: ...
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### 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 ...
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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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### 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 ...
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### 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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### 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?
100 views

### 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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### 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 ...