# All Questions

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### Is there a lower limit for the altitude of orbiting objects?

As I understand it, one object can orbit another at a variety of altitudes, and the stability of the orbit is determined by (among other things) the speed of the orbiting object. Go too slowly and ...
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### Requesting book references for a non-expert person with math background or just a non-expert person

I've just finished my masters degree (to be exact previous week ^_^). And I'm completing my collection of applications of my studies. During previous year I started reading about Robotics and Coding ...
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### Free neutrons and stellar nucleosynthesis

Both the R-process and the S-process of stellar nucleosynthesis rely on absorbing 1 (S) or more (R) neutrons. Where do they come from? I thought there are no free neutrons in stars. (Also the ...
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### Mechanism for Brown Dwarf Fusion

I've read (at here, among other places) that during the Degenerate Era, star formation will end and the last stars will go out. But it was noted that there is still the possibility of star birth, ...
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### What type of energy is escaping from black-hole's poles?

Following this article, it is stated that: As a star drifts too close to a supermassive black hole, intense tidal stresses rip the star to shreds. As this happens, the shredded material will ...
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### Is the argument of perihelion random?

I am currently designing star and planet systems in the RPG framework GURPS. This game system has a very elaborate set of rules to set up a star system, complete with planets and the like. However, ...
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### The RA and Dec of lunar poles

The moon faces the earth with one fixed side. However there is a small vibration. So I am not sure the south and north poles of the moon is fixed. Even if they are fixed points on the moon, the pole ...
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### Which is really larger, Big Dipper or Small Dipper, in 3D

If we take the convex hull of the 3D coordinates of the stars in Ursa Major and Ursa Minor: which hull has larger volume? This is meant semi-humorous but we might also learn some interesting points ...
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### If Mars orbited the Earth how distant would it have to be to cause the same tides?

If it were possible to replace the Moon with Mars, how distant would it have to be to essentially create the same oceanic tides as the Moon currently does? Mars seems to be roughly 3 times the mass of ...
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### Did the Babylonians believe in the Heliocentric version?

It's mentioned that the Babylonians decreed that there were exactly 360 days in a year. This statement was based upon the utilization of 360 as a standard (based on the sexagesimal system) i.e., they ...
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### Pulsars with accreting disk in binary system

Following this line, I am wondering about the following question. Accreting pulsars in binary systems are usually thought to accrete from a prograde disk, so increasing their spin in the process. ...
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### how to know the nature of the companion in a neutron star binary?

The companion could be a main sequence star, white dwarf, neutron star or black hole. We detected pulsar-pulsar binaryhere several decades ago. But if one of the pulsar does not radiate towards us, ...
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### What is the temperature of outerspace?

I want to know whether the temperature in Outer space is higher than earth's or cold.Is the temperature in outer space vary as it does on earth?
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### What exactly does outer space contain?

Does outer space contain any gases? Recently i watched a video on youtube,in which NASA installs a camera on a spacecraft.The footage shows some dust particles or some matter floating over the space ...
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### What is the orientation of planetary orbits?

I'm working on a planetary motion simulator. I've been working through the equations anomaly, eccentricity, etc. The one thing I'm curious about is if all the ellipses are oriented the exact same way ...
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### What is Event Horizon of a Black Hole? [closed]

The boundary of a black hole is said to be surrounded by event horizon - the point of no return! What is its significance in terms of general relativity?
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### regarding curvature of earth [closed]

i am having one doubt in earth's curvature.....this question may be dumb... How much we need to travel on earth to feel the curvature of earth. hypothetical case: for ex we are building a vehicle ...
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### Determine the moons of Jupiter through a telescope

I was doing my own "space exploration" last night with a telescope. Being a space noob I can't visually determine stars or planets (I know the moon, though), but I focused on one particularly bright ...
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### Evolution of the Hubble parameter

In the lambda-CDM model describing an accelerating Universe, the Hubble parameter is currently decreasing with time. Will it continue to decrease forever?
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### How long for a complete solar system cycle

Considering the solar system as a closed system, how long until all the planets pass twice by the same position relative to each other? I would say that you'd have to get the length of the year in ...
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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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### 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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### What astronomical observations would give conclusive proof of alien life?

There are several ways we are coming closer to answering the question "is there life elsewhere in the universe?". One is by first understanding very well the origin life on our own planet. Another is ...
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### How long was the hyper inflation phase?

How long was the hyper inflation phase? Haw can we know that it lasted for a period of time and not more or les time?
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### Calculating 2004 BL86 position using software

Is it possible to view asteroid 2004 BL86 using Stellarium or the iOS Star Walk app?
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### How do stars or galaxies get their spin?

It is my understanding that when a star, a planetary disk, or a galaxy forms, the rotational momentum of the whole system is conserved. Due to the smaller size of the resulting object, it will spin ...
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### Ramifications of black hole stellar system

Recently, I got around to seeing the movie Interstellar. In it, the characters of the movie visit a stellar system that appears to be built around a black hole instead of a star. On top of this, their ...
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### Can A Black Hole Exist?

In 1939, Robert Oppenheimer and other concluded that a certain neutron stars could collapse to black holes and no known law of physics would intervene. As far as I can tell, there is no observational ...
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### Can objects enter hydrostatic equillibrium through processes other than the influence of gravity?

Wouldn't a droplet of liquid (say water) floating around in space become spherical and "in hydrostatic equilibrium" due to surface tension but not gravity?
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### moonless night and lunar phase

How to define moonless night? There is no moon at all during some night? How to calculate and know whether the moon would appear during one night? If the lunar phase is full moon, is it possible ...
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### Is axial tilt direction correlated with semi-major axis direction?

Earth comes closest to the Sun every year around January 3. Winter solstice is at 21-22 December, merely some 12-13 days away. That means projection of Earth rotation axis onto the plane of its ...
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### What causes the bright white area in this photo of the earth?

Regarding the photo of the earth described here, I know that the green tinge on the left hand side is to do with the aurora borealis. What's causing the bright white light on the right hand side?
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### Is Zeta Reticuli within the Orion Arm?

My research has told me astronomers have labeled the galaxy arm that our system is located the Orion Arm but I have yet to find out if that also applies to Zeta Reticuli or not (not asking about ...
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### Appropriate battery for overnight viewing to drive telescope and GOTO?

I have a Plettstone 18" Dobsonian telescope with GOTO and clock drive that runs off a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter. What is an appropriate battery to use to run this overnight while viewing all ...
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### Is there a term for stars without any planets?

Quite simply, is there any used term for stars that don't have any planets? While contemplating this and doing numerous searches to no avail, I think I found my own answer, but I'm asking here for ...
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### During what time of the year can Centaurus be seen from Tokyo?

During exactly what dates of the year can the Centaurus constellation be seen from Tokyo, Japan? And what is the ideal date for viewing it from Tokyo? I found on a website that it can been seen ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### What is CMB radiation doing to the universe?

It is said that due to CMB radiation our universe has been expanding? Firstly what lead the universe to expand? What do scientists mean by dark energy? Will energy convert into matter?
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### Date and time system on moons

Supposedly, if humans were to establish a colony on one of the moons of a planet (such as gas giants in our own solar system), how could we possibly design date and time system? On Earth, we define ...
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### Visibility of Apollo 11 module

I wasn't around when man landed on the moon in 1969. When I see the moon, I always wonder, were people able to see the rocket? Yesterday, I looked at the moon in daylight and wondered again. My ...
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### 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?
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### What is frequency range?

Using the NED, you can search via frequency range corresponding to the selected pass band filter. I'm a beginner here and don't really understand. Here's the quote: NOTES: Objects with ...
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### What is the time/size/rigidity ratio for a space object to become mostly round?

In the answer here multiple comets are identified that do not form a single round body. A drop of water will form a round shape in the time it takes to free fall a couple of feet. All of the ...
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### Is it difficult to see DSO in your eyepiece?

I want to know if bringing the image of a DSO in eyepiece generally represents a problem for beginners in astronomy.
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### Does mass create space?

Imagine two cubes each with the side 1 light year. One of the cubes is empty of any matter. The other cube contains a massive star. Does the cube which contains the massive star have a larger volume ...
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### Metallicity: What are the metallicity values of various galaxies?

What are the various values of metallicity of various known galaxies, like Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, Andromeda and so on?
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### If an object with mass were to somehow go the speed of light, would it destroy the whole universe?

Would an object with mass traveling the speed of light destroy the whole universe because it would have infinite energy / mass? According to ...