# All Questions

98 views

### strange moonset around 10 pm (3.2 2014, NZ) - explanation?

during a visit to New Zealand we observed (on 3.2 2014) a strange moonset in Te Anau. Around 10 pm, shortly after sunset, the moon appeared, but then quickly began to go down, and about 1 hour or ...
392 views

### Do black holes die?

I know of stars actually dying (exploding as a supernova) but I have never heard of what happen to black holes. Do they continue to live forever, waiting there for more matter to absorb? Do they ...
57 views

### Could I create a staircase to the moon and walk to it? [closed]

Assuming one could create a staircase and walk to the moon, would escape velocity still be a factor in leaving the Earth's gravitational pull? I'm not a physicist but am just curious to know.
31 views

### Can we only see the past of the universe? [duplicate]

So I was reading some interesting stuff about universe and Big Bang and wanted to make sure one thing. As far as I understand everything we can see about universe is the past, right? I mean all the ...
169 views

### What would happen if we put a small part of White Dwarf or Neutron Star on Earth?

I would know what would happen if we put a small part (let me assume 1 cm$^3$) of White Dwarf or Neutron Star on ...
415 views

### Why haven't Earth and Venus got any tiny moons? Or have they?

Why haven't some meteoroids gotten caught in Earth's or Venus' orbit? AFAIK most meteors are tiny fragments from comets. Shouldn't some comet tail sometime have passed Earth orbit at velocities ...
52 views

### What are the concrete technical arguments supporting the idea that the wave function of the universe can be written as partition function?

In this talk, the not yet settled down idea that the wave function of the universe could potentially be written as the partition function of a scale invariant statistical field theory is mentioned: ...
571 views

### Is everything quantum entangled?

So, I am learning about quantum entanglement in my quantum course and had a thought. If the Big Bang is the creation of everything - time included, and this came from a single "source". Would it not ...
233 views

### What are the masses of the two stars (given the information provided)?

If anyone would at least be willing to point me in the direction of finding the answer, or help me solve it I'd appreciate it. I don't know how to go about this, and need to know how to solve this on ...
108 views

### What does black hole evaporation correspond to in the accelerating universe / black hole analogy?

In the same way, as a black hole emits Hawking radiation corresponding to its temperature $$T = \frac{\hbar}{r_{BH}}$$ the accelerating universe can be described as all of the stuff falling ...
116 views

### Can looking at the sun through solar viewing eclipse shades everyday harm your eyes?

I have a pair of Solar Viewing Eclipse Shades that say "Safe for Direct Solar Viewing" and would like to know if my eyes would be harmed if I looked at the sun everyday for about a minute wearing ...
70 views

### Would it be possible to calculate the expected frequency of impact craters of all sizes on Earth

Can the expected frequency of all sizes of impact craters on Earth be calculated based on the preservation of impact craters seen on the Moon? Taking into account the difference in gravity and ...
146 views

### Class presentation on the Sun, ideas? [closed]

Tomorrow I have to give a [high school] class presentation on a topic of the solar system. I have thought of the Sun, as I have always believed it to be the central part of the Solar System. So I am ...
187 views

### How are rogue planets discovered?

Planets are usually found by observing a star and waiting for the light level to drop when a planet passes in front of it, but what about rogue planets that don't have host stars?
745 views

### Why is the speed of light 299,792,458 meters/sec?

Ok, I am majoring in physics (4th year) and I never understood this fundamental (kinda) question. Maybe I haven't explored it enough. For example, why does it take 8min20sec for the light from the ...
394 views

### Formulas to determine the illuminated phase and orientation of the Moon

The phase of the Moon (the bright limb) looks different depending on where on Earth the observer is located and the time of the observation. I've located this video and the accompanying spreadsheet ...
430 views

### Do solar systems have to evolve in a galaxy?

Is it possible for a solar system like ours to exist and evolve apart from all other star systems and galaxies. Sort of like a stand alone solar system or rogue solar system for lack of a better name. ...
108 views

### Matter/mass exist into the space. Where does space exist? [duplicate]

It is said that before big bang there was nothing. Not even space/time. So, now where does space exists?
76 views

### Is it possible to calculate the time of day given latitude, longitude and solar elevation angles (zenith, azimuth, elevation)?

I am trying to determine the time of day of some images I have. I know the lat/lon, the day and year of image. I also know the 3 solar angles (zenith, azimuth, and elevation). Is there MATLAB or ...
107 views

### How many earth-like planets do we know at this moment?

Well, the title says everything... How many earth-like planets have we discovered out there? Discard too big (made of gas), too cold, too hot, etc. Consider earth-like sun distance, size, temperature, ...
100 views

### Could black holes be creators of dark matter?

At the tremendous forces of gravity inside a black hole, can "matter" be transformed into a more degenerate form; "dark matter" (if that truly what dark matter is)? I know the inside of a black hole ...
228 views

### A clock travelling “faster than the speed of light” [closed]

When a clock travels close to the speed of light as observed by us, it should tick slower. Does this mean that, when using this clock to measure a second - it could travel much more than 300 000 km ...
784 views

### What would we find if we could travel 786 trillion light years in any direction

I've sometimes heard of galaxies that are millions or billions of light years away but if we could instantly travel 786 trillion light years in any direction, what are we likely to find? And what if ...
88 views

### Integral calculus for the Olympiad? [closed]

This year I am going to participate at the Astronomy Olympiad, in the beta group (seniors) - 15 years old or above. I have already participated at this Olympiad in the alpha group (juniors)... now, a ...
411 views

### Do stars have exactly sphere shape?

Planets (at least, some of them like Earth) aren't exactly spherical - but what about stars? Is Sun perfectly spherical, for example? What may be the reasons if it isn't? What about other stars?
228 views

### If the earth stopped rotating, would we really fly inertially at 1000mph? [closed]

I heard this on Prof. Neil Tyson's StarTalk podcast (this episode) and had a question about it. In a Q&A session, a listener had asked what would happen if Superman really did stop the earth from ...
69 views

### How do one identify something they see in the sky?

I've always wondered how someone looking at the sky into the enormous amount of stars and other things out there figures out that whether it is an already identified object or is he looking at ...
378 views

### What would happen if a body were to fall into a neutron star?

We know neutron stars as a very massive object with extremely strong gravitational forces that composes mostly of neutrons. I couldn't help but wonder, what would happen if an object fell into a ...
191 views

### What happened before the big bang? [duplicate]

Was there space before big bang? Or who knows there might be different heavenly bodies that we might not perceive?
181 views

### Why one cannot escape from a black hole [duplicate]

The usual explanation is that escape velocity of a black hole is above speed of light, therefore nothing can escape because nothing can move faster than light. This is however a fallacy, because ...
339 views

### Galaxies are moving away from each other then how Milkyway and Andromeda galaxy coming towards each other?

The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 684000 mi/hours, making it one of the few blueshifted galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are thus expected to collide in about ...
61 views

### To what extent are structure formations unexplained?

I hear conflicting claims about our understanding of the structure formation in our universe. I heard that ΛCDM explaines well the large scale structure of the universe i.e. Comparison of the ...
66 views

### How is the magnitude of a star measured?

How does one measure the brightness of a star?, I did not find anything on the internet.
823 views

### Which planet is also the name of an element? [closed]

Which planet is also the name of an element? I came across this question on cosmos quest and need and answer
124 views

### Can we know whether any distant galaxy is moving away in same direction or in opposite direction w.r.t. our galaxy?

The Hubble law states that the recessional velocity of a galaxy is proportional to its distance from us. It takes redshift and angular sizes (for distance) of the galaxy to determine velocity, and ...
1k views

### Was the Milky Way ever a quasar?

Is there any evidence that the Milky Way could have been a quasar in it's early history? Is it thought that most galaxies come from quasars?
134 views

### What's the origin and culture of funny astronomical terminology?

I'm not in the industry myself, but as an interested member of the public the terminology of astronomy seems a bit funny. Astronomers who today talk publicly about the interstellar medium say that the ...
101 views

### Adjust axis labels in ds9

How can I adjust the axis labels in ds9? I'd like to have something like: So far I only managed to get floating points (tl h%f3): or the leading hours are missing (tl h%f1 m): Edit: I tried ...
225 views

### What's a good step up from 7x50 binoculars?

I own a Nikon OceanPro 7x50 pair of binoculars, but I find that when I look at the moon, I would like more magnification. My requirements are: costs less than \$400 weighs less than 10kg the length ...
116 views

### Is there going to be a really bad Solar Storm in 2014?

Here are some Articles I've found. Is it true? If it is, How big could it be?, what might be possible or will be possible?, what will happen?
68 views

### Is there an oxide layer on aluminum reflectors for telescopes?

I was watching a Nottingham Science video linked here (periodic videos) and they mention modern reflectors are made of aluminum. I can understand why mirrors are preferred over lenses, but what ...
227 views

### Do stars of a galaxy change their positions relatively to each other?

Complete astronomy noob over here who would be happy if he get a simple answer (and who is also aware that this may be not possible)... I've learned from a tv documentary that the stars at the edge ...
143 views

### Are black holes orbiting around each other?

Obviously, bodies with low gravity force orbit around another one with higher gravity force, if they are close enough to each other. Is it true also for objects like black holes? Are they even able ...
201 views

### 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 ...
55 views

### Rotational speeds of the material forming planets should increase, not decrease

We know that planets form as a result of gaseous material revolving around a center of mass that froze to form planets. However shouldn't the angular speed of that matter increase as they go closer to ...
274 views

### Why is the outline of a crescent moon brighter?

Some quick googling has given me the answer to whether seeing part of the moon that receives no sunlight is an optical illusion or not: it isn't. Earthshine lights the moon enough for the human eye to ...
275 views

### If oxygen was abundant in Neptune, would there be combustion?

Since Neptune/Uranus have high percentages of methane, wouldn't it be highly likely that there will be combustion (triggered by the lightning storms or any other factor) if oxygen was abundant? And ...
102 views

### In what form was the space at singularity?

It is somewhat imaginable for all the matter or energy to be condensed in sub-atomic size. But what about space? The space is neither 'matter' nor 'Energy'. If there were no space at singularity ...