# All Questions

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### What is the process for vetting the 4,175 candidate planets Kepler has discovered?

In the National Geographic article about NASA's announcement of new planets discovered by the Kepler spacecraft, it states that there are 4,175 candidate planets. What is the process for vetting these ...
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### Origin of the original bright light and matter [closed]

Do any theories exist as to where this bright light and matter came from that expanded to form our Universe ?
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### Are a black hole's jets caused by the black hole's magnetic field?

Do the jets sometimes emitted by a black hole result from its magnetic field? It would seem Jupiter's magnetic field tends to be concentrated at the poles, and I would imagine this might extend to ...
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### Is there a strong galactic magnetic field?

My main question is: Is there a strong galactic magnetic field, perhaps driven by the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy? I am also wondering if this field would be strong enough to ...
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### Can magnetism escape a black hole?

I know light, and practically nothing but gravity can escape a black hole. My question is: can magnetism escape a black hole? A couple things that convince me it can are: Jupiter's magnetic ...
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### Are there equations to simulate creation of a solar system?

I've been wanting to create a simulator to run tests based on properties of a star to find patterns in how planets form. Are there any already made equations for any of these countless relationships? ...
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### How do astronomers choose their research topic? [closed]

Astronomers don't face much of an ordinary jobs market in their "trade". What does the process look like from choosing a topic for the PhD to doing research in a specific topic? Let's say that you're ...
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### Why stars are named Gliese?

There are exoplanets called Gliese 581c, Gliese 581d etc. I assume their star is Gliese 581. So where does this Gliese come from?
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### Meteorites bring water

The latest information suggests that Earth's water came from Meteorites . The Moon was also bombarded by Meteorites and yet it has no water. Is this because it lacks an atmosphere and its water was ...
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### US observations relevant in UK?

When I listen to the Planetary Radio podcast, there is a section at the end where they suggest objects to look out for in the night sky. If I am in the UK, but they are talking about the USA, will I ...
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### How do or could radio telescopes contribute to exoplanet studies?

Current and upcoming telescopes which find exoplanets and take spectra of their atmospheres seem to be optical or infrared. What about radio telescopes applied to exoplanets? They are larger and more ...
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### Tide on the Moon

If the Earth's Moon had a water ocean of depth 2-4 Km, how high would the tides rise due to the Earth's gravity? (Just a hypothetical question.)
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### Do Roche limits apply to black holes?

Consider black hole A, a super massive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Orbiting it is black hold B, a less massive black hole. If some passing body were to modify black hole B's orbit such ...
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### Near-future astronomic events that could threaten Earth

What kinds of astronomical events can pose a serious threat to life on Earth in the near future (1000-10,000 years). If there are none in the near future, when is the soonest event that is predicted ...
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### Collision of two Earths

Assume that two Earth-like planets orbited the same star, with elliptic orbits. Eventually, something occurs that caused the two planets to collide. What would be the outcome of such a catastrophe? ...
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### How can I predict space directions?

Did the Neptune and Pluto trajectories ever cross or was it a mere reclassification? Do studies say that I can predict an intersection between 2 trajectories or movements based on data now? Do I have ...
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### If an asteroid twice the size of Earth passed super close would half of the Earth be pulled towards it?

So let's say that an asteroid the twice the size of Earth passed by going relatively slow say in between the Moon and Earth. Among so many other things (and perhaps you can touch on some of the ...
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### Does CIBER Experiment from Caltech suggest that there can be lots of stars which are not in any galaxy?

My question is about the implications of the observations recently made by the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, or CIBER, from Caltech. I've read at Caltech web site: "The total light ...
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### Why is the Eagle Nebula so “static”?

This, of course, is a newbie question, as I am nothing more than a hobbyist. But I was quite surprised to see the recently-released "before and after" pictures of the so-called "Pillars of Creation" ...
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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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### Wher can I find a list of blueshifted regions in the Milky Way?

It would be nice to get a relation between the blueshifted regions and the distance to earth. I'm searching especially for objects in other galactic arms.
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### As days get longer, why isn't the added daylight split evenly between sunrise and sunset?

I have a basic understanding of the sinusoidal relationship of the rate of change of daylight as the year goes on. But it seems intuitive that the changes should be equally split between sunrise and ...
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### What would happen if a wormhole gets swallowed by a black hole?

Assume wormholes exist: one hole allows matter to pop out of another hole somewhere else in the universe. If one end of the wormhole is swallowed by a black hole then no information can get from that ...
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### Quantum death of stars

This comes from a comment on this question, to quote: The death of (large mass) stars is also based on quantum events with probabilities technically not 1 (and is very fast), so it is technically ...
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### Working with high-magnification eye-pieces

My telescope (Newtonian reflector) has a focal length of 900 mm. So, using a 25 mm eye-piece, I get 900 mm / 25 mm = 36X magnification. Using a 10 mm eye-piece, the magnification would be 90X. My ...
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### Is there an element of chance/chaos in stellar evolution?

Since stars are an ideal example of macroscopic objects, is their evolution determined by their initial mass and metallicity? Are there any non-trivial random internal processes going on that may ...
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### What are dark matter and dark energy? [closed]

I've recently read about dark matter and dark energy. But unfortunately, there were not enough answers for me. The article I read was more of a hypothesis than a real answer. So I'm asking for all the ...
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### What does designation VY, NML, UU in star names stand for?

I've read the a IAU page on the subject but i am no closer to understanding how this works. Also did search the already asked question, but didn't see anything on the subject. What does bolded item ...
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### Can our Sun become a black hole

Does every star become a black hole? Is there any probability that our sun can become a black hole? If yes then is it on its way to become a black hole? what is the current state of sun as per the ...
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### Questions about a fictional binary system, and habitability

Note: Questions are at the bottom. The rest had simply been written in a format to better organize my thoughts. The formulas used to construct this fictional solar system, had been borrowed from ...
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### Astrochemistry - what does freeze-out mean?

I was recently watching a video on the physics and chemistry in planetary accretion disks, and the speaker at a certain point mentioned 'freeze-out and UV dissociation'. Is freeze-out a purely ...
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### Calculating area of visible sky

Can we calculate the area of sky visible to us from the point we are standing?I mean is there any idea or experiment to calculate it?
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### How is the path of an asteroid calculated?

How do scientists and astronomers recognize the perfect path or orbit (if it's orbiting an object) of an asteroid or a comet? Just curious! Thanks in advance!
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### How do you find the altitude of the Sun if you are on the Moon?

The question is: If you stand on the equator of the Moon, at midday your position occurs when the Moon is located at the line of the node. What is the altitude of the sun at that moment? ...
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### Big Bang / Big Crunch cycle?

I've been reading some of Stephen Hawking's work on the theory of the expansion (and ultimate contraction) of the universe and was curious if anyone has every hypothesized that the universe has ...
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### Maximum and minimum gas giant & ice giant densities

I'm working on a star system generator for a game; I'd like its results to be plausible but they needn't be super-realistic. I've got the orbital distances and masses of each body in the system, and ...
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### Question: calculating orbit using another orbit

A satellite which is moving around a planet of mass $M$ in a circular orbit of radius $R$ is given a sudden thrust into the center of the planet, so that it deviates an angle $a$. Find the ...
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### Why doesn't Earth's axis change during the year?

My understanding is that the Earth's axis points in the same direction in space during its entire orbit around the sun. And this is what causes our seasons. My question is why doesn't the axis follow ...
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### landing on a comet is more important than landing on an asteroid?

Philae landed on comet 67P this year. And it means a big breakthrough for the science and technology of human being. However Hayabusa mission of Japan not only landed on an asteroid but also returned ...
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### Are there any known objects in a “dual” tidally locked orbit?

Is there any known pair of objects tidally locked with each other? I know the moon is tidally locked with the earth (e.g. one side always facing earth), but I don't know of any pair of objects that ...
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### Position of Neutron stars in H R diagram

Why is that Neutron Stars are never depicted in an H R diagram? They can be placed in the bottom right corner but you will never find any diagram in literature showing neutron stars.
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### How should exoplanet discoveries affect SETI?

Given that SETI was created before the discovery of exoplanets, has this changed how they search? Would it make more sense to focus efforts on discovered earth like exoplanets?
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### How to read 5 degree data of green line intensity

When I open the 5 degree data of Green Coronal Emission line from this, I get a weird table which is not simple like the one for Coronal Index. I am only providing the table for 1939. ...
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### How do I get from Star Atlas to real life?

This question is about finding the elevation and bearing of a given star at a particular time at Latitude 52N. I look up the RA and Declination of my star. How do I calculate its RA and elevation at ...
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### What is the temperature of an accretion disc surrounding a supermassive black hole?

What is the temperature of an accretion disc surrounding a supermassive black hole? Is there plasma in the disc?
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### How is the diameter of a gas giant calculated?

As we know atmospheres of celestial bodies don't just stop at a given distance. They gradually become less dense as you move away from the center. I understand that the diameter of stars is ...
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### Which wavelength is the most quiet, for a ground-based radio telescope?

This might seem like a backwards question, but I'm interested in what wavelength to select in a (hypothetical) ground-based radio telescope observation to expect detecting as little as possible! :) ...
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### One Universe or Multiverse? [closed]

I watched a program where four astrophysicists were debating this topic. I couldn't fully understand what they were saying but wanted to ask others' opinions on whether there is only one Universe or ...