All Questions

67 views

What will happen when landing on Jupiter?

Jupiter is a gas giant, so landing on it will not be like Earth, our moon or Mars etc., as it does not have a surface like these. If we have a hypothetical spaceship or probe landing on Jupiter, ...
106 views

Entropy of black hole

A line from one of the answers on a different question got me thinking: The simplest way to see this is probably that a black hole has a much higher entropy than a star or even another type of ...
957 views

Does a black hole become a normal star again?

Stars which satisfy the Chandrasekhar limit can become a black hole. What happens to star after it becomes a black hole? Does it regain its status of star?
35 views

Does the cosmic microwave background recede at the speed of light?

Does the cosmic microwave background recede at the speed of light? Is it possible it recedes even faster because of the stretching of space?
52 views

Does the cosmic microwave background change over time?

Does the cosmic microwave background pattern change over time? I would assume it is getting "cooler" as in more redshifted as time passes, but I am more interested if the pattern on the background, ...
72 views

Galaxy rotation curve and dark matter

I am reading "The Essential Cosmic Perspective" by Jeffrey O. Bennett, Megan O. Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, Mark Voit. In Chapter 14, it is stated that an evidence of the presence of dark matter in ...
352 views

How much mass does an object in space need to keep a human on its surface?

Assume there were a roughly spherical object in space like a meteorite or a comet. If I weighed 80kg on Earth, how much mass would be required for an object in space so that I could stay on its ...
50 views

Find the height of the shooting star from the Earth's ground

One night, you and your friend were talking to each other. Your friend far about 20 km. from you. You told your friend that you see the shooting star pass through the sky at altitude of 75 degrees. ...
46 views

Calculate the time when Arcturus passed through the meridian

If the observer observes Arcturus passed through the meridian about 23:00:00 of 28 April. Find the time that Arcturus passed the meridian in 29 April. And what day does the Arcturus will pass the ...
26 views

Multi Universe theory [duplicate]

I understand and also believe that there can be other Universes but what I don't understand is why these other Universes have to be weird ? Why can't they be like our Universe ? Also I don't ...
62 views

Mass, Radius, Colour, Size, Type of a Star from the Hipparcos Catalog

Using data from the Hipparcos Catalog download file, is there a way to determine the Visual or Apparent Magnitude from the data within? Can I obtain the Mass, Radius, colour, temperature, type ...
70 views

Could there be another planet between Mercury and the Sun?

Could there be another planet between Mercury and the Sun? Kepler found a lot of planets orbiting its star even 20 times closer than Mercury. If there were such planets in our system - would it be ...
85 views

In geocentric models, did the earth rotate?

Under geocentric models, did the earth rotate around its axis? I assume that if the earth rotated around its axis, then the sun would not have to orbit around the earth at a very fast rate, whereas ...
108 views

Is it possible to disprove geocentrism without telescopes?

The development of telescopes enabled the discovery of moons orbiting around Jupiter, and the existence of a full set of phases of Venus, as opposed to a limited set which would be predicted by ...
26 views

Can you suggest telescope for beginners? [duplicate]

I am interested in astronomy and want to look deep into the awesome sky . So, suggest me an economic telescope or the specifications that are to be considered. I am from India.
40 views

What qualifies as a local star?

My professor used the term 'local star'. What range of distance is generally considered 'local' for a star? And what would be considered distant?
81 views

earth is spherical , does it mean the ground on earth is like a ball? [closed]

I know earth is spherical in shape. Does this means earths atmosphere is spherical in shape or the ground/(land+water combined) is in spherical shape. I have some doubts if the second is true. ...
47 views

Why do we have so few neutrinos to study?

According to Wikipedia most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the Sun. About 65 billion (6.5^10) solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the ...
54 views

Why do not we use optical telescopes to study cosmic rays directly?

HESS, CTA, and VERITAS are used to study cosmic rays. What they receive are optical (maybe very blue) photons. So my question is: Why don't we use optical telescopes to study cosmic rays directly?
83 views

How gently could a comet/asteroid/meteorite “hit” Earth?

Could an object from outer space with the right velocity and orbit come into contact with the surface of our planet in a "slowish" manner?
59 views

Light Cone Explanation

Not sure if this question belongs here, or on Physics. Would someone please describe the "anatomy" of a light cone and provide an intuitive example? I have read the Wikipedia article ...
37 views

How Are Radioactive Decay Rates Influenced by Neutrinos - On Earth and Other Dense Planets

I read a science report recently that mentioned an accidental discovery where radioactive decay rates shifted slightly slower in advance ( about a day and a half) of solar storms or in sync with sun's ...
53 views

Retrograde motion and Kuiper Belt Objects

As seen from Earth, planets such as Mars and Jupiter exhibit retrograde motion when they are near opposition (from Earth). I am wondering how this effect extends to very distant objects, such as ...
79 views

Theoretical limits for natural satellites having natural satellites

Is there an inherent instability or limit that prevents natural satellites like the moons of Jupiter from having their own natural satellites? I looked at other questions such as do moons have moons ...
41 views

What “revolutionary” discoveries were made by Hubble Telescope [closed]

Forgive me for the naive question. Besides taking pictures of tons of objects in space, what kinds of revolutionary discoveries were made as a result of data from Hubble? Did Hubble shed light on any ...
78 views

Calculating 2004 BL86 position using software

Is it possible to view asteroid 2004 BL86 using Stellarium or the iOS Star Walk app?
97 views

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 ...
49 views

Is there a cosmic, rather than technological, upper limit to what a telescope can resolve?

Space radio interferometers could have a baseline of millions of kilometers, but is there a point where a larger baseline doesn't improve the resolution anymore because the photons observed are ...
105 views

Do objects look larger the further away they are, beyond z=1?

I stumbled upon this text which illustrates and says: We find that as the object is moved to higher redshifts its angular size first decreases (as naively expected) but soon begins to increase ...
72 views

How to complete the Hipparcos Catalog?

I've downloaded hipparcos catalog from the Strasbourg Universe but whilst there is a lot of information, I can't find the names of the stars that the HipID relates to. There is the wikipedia page ...
65 views

The destruction of the Universe by a bubble

So I was watching a documentary on television about this and a number of theories that are proposed as to what the fate of the Universe will be: "Big Crunch" "Big Freeze" "Big Rip" I understand ...
127 views

Why don't we orbit the center of our galaxy?

At the center of the milky way, there must be some giant mass that keeps the galaxy from just floating away from itself. So, obviously, we feel the immense gravitational pull of whatever this is. But, ...
35 views

How to find RA 0

I am standing in an open area and can see the sky for a full 360 degrees. I have the coordinates of an object (RA and DEC). Where do I look to find RA 0?
71 views

What does it mean to say 'space exists?'

From another question I posted, I learned that not only was matter created from the Big Bang, but more importantly, space itself. What does it mean for space to be created? Does it exist in the same ...
39 views

Why do we need to add a second to 30 June and risk upsetting Internet?

We linked a physical constant (the time of one second) to a physical non constant (the rotation of the earth) so there will have to be adjustments - or not? Is it important that the UTC in one line on ...
78 views

What's special about Saturn that it has distinctive rings?

This may overlap with other questions, but I'm asking what is unique about Saturn in location, properties, etc that is has far more pronounced rings? It's between Jupiter and Uranus and Neptune in ...
50 views

The tidal locking problem concerning Earth sized planets in habital zone around Red Dwarfs

Would twin planets orbiting around each-other present a solution to tidal locking of habitable planets in Red Dwarf systems. It's an awfully easy equation to set up....oh ok I'm fibbing I can't do it. ...
43 views

What are the units of distance in this subtended angle calculation?

I'd like to find the distance at which a 2.4 cm coin is subtended by an angle of 10". I've drawn my diagram and found that $D=\dfrac{d}{\alpha}$ using the small angle approximation. Since \$10" = ...
38 views

PowerSeeker 114Q

I just purchased a powerseeker 114q by Celestron. This is my very first telescope. I believe I assembled it correctly however I can't see anything out of it. Well I can see a small corner of an image. ...
51 views

Why does the sun rise north of east between the vernal and autumnal equinox?

Can someone please explain this phenomenon? A solid explanation seems to be missing from the entire internet.
30 views

Did I see a meteor or a re-entry?

Last night (January 21, possibly 5:30 UTC), from my house in northern California, I saw a moving point of light in the sky, going west to east, crossing about 120 degrees of sky in 5 seconds or so. ...
142 views

How often does the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way become a quasar?

My current interest is black holes and quasars. I was wondering how often they erupt--specifically ours? Would it be blindingly bright on Earth? Finally, would there be any effects that would alter ...
246 views

Is there any planet/star bigger than VY Canis Majoris?

Compared to VY Canis Majoris, our Sun is more like a speck of space dust. Is there any planet or star which is known to us that is bigger than the VY Canis Majoris?
31 views

Recent origin of Saturn's rings

Saturn was formed around billion years ago along with Jupiter. After which it had enough time to form moon which can break into rings. Then why is it said that Saturn's ring are of recent origin - ...
34 views

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 ...
76 views

If Alpha Centauri A's solar system exactly mirrored our own, what would we be able to detect?

Suppose there was an exact replica of our solar system 4.4 ly away (people included). What would we be able to detect and with what telescope(s)? Which planets? Could we detect radio transmissions ...
14 views

How do I deduce my latitude and longitude from N obervations of occultations from the same place?

I think it would be an interesting exercise to measure the latiude and longitude of my house using N occultation timings. I would like to see how precisely I can measure it using that technique, and ...
60 views

Finding the temperature of Earth from temperature of Mars and its distance from Sun

I am to compute the temperature of planet--in fact I've already found out it's Earth--knowing only: the surface temperature of Mars (210 K) and its distance from Sun (1.524 AU) and of course ...