# All Questions

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### Star names and the HYG Database

Related to Convert coordinates between RA/dec and WGS 84 (SRID=4326). WARNING: I'm a noob in astronomy. After import all stars from HYG Database (http://www.astronexus.com/node/34) I noticed some ...
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### In India, what is the best time to view the geminid meteor shower in 2013

As of the time of writing this question, the meteors should have appeared, but so far I haven't seen any. What time would be the best to view them?
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### Black Holes emitting Hawking radiation

I've read that even light cannot escape from black holes. The speed of light is theoretically predicted to be the escape velocity of a black hole. I've also read that the general notion that nothing ...
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### The life course for a massive star from birth to death using the HR Diagram

could you explain to me the life course for a massive star (30-40 solar masses) from birth to death using the HR Diagram (by showing key events in its life on the HR Diagram)? thanks
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### Calculate apsides without knowing eccentricity

How would one go about determining the apsides of an orbit, knowing only the current distance between the 2 bodies, the orbital velocity, and the period? Every formula I've seen requires eccentricity, ...
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### iteration to cover the whole sky with right ascension, declination, angle

I am sure I get parts of the terminology wrong but if anyone can shed some light in the following: I understand that for a given right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC), one has defined a ray ...
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### Where does the dust on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko come from?

As we (laymen) are told, comets lose gas and dust when they descent into the denser regions of the solar system. Seemingly so much and so large parts that they can even cause meteor showers like in ...
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### What is the Habitable zone all about?

I've a question on Habitable zone. Does Habitable zone represent the region where we humans or the living beings of earth can survive? Or is it a region where life can exist? If it is second I want ...
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### Can Jupiter's bands be made out using a 15x70 pair of binoculars? [closed]

I have been getting mixed opinions on this. I have a 15x70 Pair of Binoculars. I have tried staring at Jupiter for several minutes with it, I was able to see the Galilean moons, in fact the last time ...
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### Why are stars so far apart?

So, this is mere musing, but it seems that stars are quite extremely far apart. I tried to determine the mean distance between nearest neighbors for stars (in just our galaxy) but I'm not sure what it ...
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### What it would look like to observe people with a different time flows?

As I learned, that the bigger gravity source you are influenced by the more slow time ticks for you, the farther away you are from a gravity source the faster times ticks. So Imagine two different ...
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### Red shifting galaxies

I am an amateur astronomer please correct if any of my understandings are wrong. We all know that from the Hubble's ultra deep field image the most distant galaxies which were created shortly after ...
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### How does this strategy for chasing the sunset work?

In Randall Munroe's What If? blog he tackles this question: What is the longest possible sunset you can experience while driving, assuming we are obeying the speed limit and driving on paved ...
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### How many observations does it take to determine the orbit of a TNO

Several observations of a distant solar object must be taken before determining its orbit, but in the case of objects discovered beyond Neptune's orbit, just how many are required over what period of ...
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### Orbiting supermassive black hole or galactic center of mass?

One of the ways they measure the (supposed?) supermassive black hole at the galactic center of the milky way is to measure those tens of stars right at the galactic center that are orbiting what ...
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### What would be the dynamics of a double-planet system, similar to Earth / Moon, but with both bodies nearly Earth-sized?

Researching a sci-fi story involving a "twin-planet" system. Is such an arrangement (however unlikely) physically possible? And if so, must they be tidally locked with each other, similar to the moon, ...
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### why do we look at dark energy as an energy?

We call dark matter dark matter, because of the way it acts on galaxies, but why do we look at dark energy as an energy? With $E = m c^2$, can't dark energy be mass as well? Why dont we look at dark ...
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### Why does iron consume more energy in the fusion process than it produces?

I understand that once a star starts fusing iron, it's doomed to collapse because iron fusion requires more energy than it releases in the process, allowing the opposing gravity of the star to cause ...
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### Can Hubble red shift be interpreted as time dilation?

Can we interpret the de Sitter universe as a spherical cosmic horizon null surface of finite radius, centered at Earth, and containing the Hubble volume of space where time is dilated and radial ...
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### What day/night cycles, climate and seasons would experience Alpha Centauri Bb inhabitants?

Alpha Centauri Bb is an exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. It is asserted that given the close distance to the star the planet should be tidally locked. The orbiting period of the planet is about ...
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### The furthest horizon in the Solar system

Where can I observe the furthest horizon in the Solar system ? And what the length of it ? The furthest horizon on Earth can be observed from mount Everest ~ 336 km, On Mars - from mount Olympus ~ 386 ...
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### How massive can a star be at birth? [duplicate]

We have discovered some incredibly massive stars. R136a1, the most massive known star is estimated to have 265 times mass as our Sun. Yet it has been burning for at least a million years, and must ...
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### What is the cause of the variation from high and low mean obliquity periods of Mars?

It is reasonably well known that Mars has a greater obliquity range than Earth, due to Mars lacking a stabilising influence of a large moon. However, the Martian obliquity seems to have gone through ...