# All Questions

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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### How do scientists determine the age of stars?

I was Googling about the oldest galaxies in the Universe. Everywhere is written that their age is known by the light. Referring to this line "Since light travels at a set speed, if you look at a star ...
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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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### how far away could we detect that earth has life?

My guess is that life bearing planets are too far apart to be detected. I think we can only find the ones within a sphere around our planet that is 100s of light years in diameter but I suspect life ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### Instrumental magnitude to “real” magnitude - Photometry with not enough data?

I have a lot of data taken in R, B, V, Luminance and Halpha-bands which I want to analyse photometrically (one target in the frame). The frames are already reduced (with flats, darks etc.) and have a ...
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### What is the explanation for rapid inflation just after the big bang?

I often hear about cosmic inflation occurring rapidly after the Big Bang, but have never came across any explanation for it. What supposedly caused this inflationary period in the early universe? ...
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### Alt-Az or Polar?

I have a Meade wedge that I am to install on one of their LX200 telescopes. Will I be able to align in alt-az afterwards? Is polar easier or harder to make an alignment? Any other tips welcome. Thanks ...
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### What are the azimuths of the planets' orbits?

I am creating a virtual solar system model and I want it to be as realistic as possible (e.g. orbits are ellipses, not circles, and orbits are oriented correctly, not all coplanar). In order for me ...
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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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### Given a date obtain latitude and longitude where is the sun zenith

Searching is easy to find terminator line (frontier between day and night) or the position of the sun in the sky given a position on the earth and a time; but I can't find how to obtain where is the ...
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### Leonid meteor showers and the Tempel-Tuttle comet

I've been reading about the Leonid meteor showers and am struggling to understand one piece of information. On Wikipedia (Tempel-Tuttle), it states: The orbit of 55P/Tempel–Tuttle intersects that ...
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### How does radio bandwidth restrict the choice and use of science payload on interplanetary probes?

I asked a question here about returning to Earth a physical memory capsule along with soil samples, as a complement to radio operations as today. This might return a much larger amount of data ...
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### Do we know the exact spot where big bang took place?

If you rewind the universe back 14,7 billion years, all matter were in one spot, and then started expanding. Do we know where this is in reference to our own solar system? And is there anything there? ...
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### 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, ...
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### What will New Horizons be able to say about a magnetic field at Pluto?

Does NASA's New Horizons flyby probe to Pluto have instruments to measure Pluto's (or Charon's) magnetic field, if any? I'm a bit confused by the Wikipedia article which says that New Horizons, ...
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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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### Why are explosions always used to represent the Big Bang?

In documentaries the Big Bang is often represented as blackness followed by a big explosion with loud noises. This always feels cheap and falling short of explaining the origin of the Universe. Is ...
118 views

### 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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### What is a possible software for simulating binary star systems?

I would like to define both initial velocities and masses of components so that orbits may be either elliptical of hyperbolic. Is there any software to make such simulation? Unfortunately, Binary ...
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### How do we know an event is a gamma-ray burst?

How do we know an event is a gamma-ray burst (grb)? There are two kinds of grbs, long burst and shot burst, which are caused by supernova explosions explosion and the merger of two neutron stars, ...
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### Why can't I see Mars clearly?

I just bought my first telescope - a Celestron CDC 1100. It came with a 40mm lens so with a primary focal length of 2800mm the power should be 70x. My problem is that I've looked at Sirius and Mars ...
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### 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. ...
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### 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?
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### Alien Planet habitable or not?

So an amazing thing happens and we locate an Earth like Planet and we also achieve the technology that enables us to travel there. Upon arrival we discover that dinosaurs are roaming on the entire ...
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### 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 ...
343 views

### Where does the Milky Way end?

I was reading this article and it says the following: Researchers measured the mass of the Milky Way and found that our galaxy is approximately half the weight of a neighbouring galaxy known as ...
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### Is there a star simulation software that can handle mass ejections and supernovae?

I use MESA right now to play around with stellar dynamics, but it can't do mass ejections and therefore, I can't think of a way to let the simulated stars explode as supernovae. What simulation ...
226 views

### Why is iron responsible for causing a supernova?

Why is the element iron responsible for supernova? Can any star create more element than iron within the span of its life? I understand that when star dies due to supernova, other elements are ...
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### Declination and Ascension - the Sun and Andromeda

If Andromeda is overhead at midnight, what is the right ascension of the sun? (andromeda is ar RA =1hr, Dec = +40). I thought I understood what Dec and RA were, but I can't think of how to start this ...
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### 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. ...
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### 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.
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### 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" = ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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. ...
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### Is there a general term for epicycles, deferents, and eccentrics in Ptolemaic astronomy?

According to Ptolemy's (c. 150 CE) account of the motions of planets, planets moved in circular paths ("epicycles") around center points that in turn moved around the center of the earth along a path ...
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### How are the speed, distance and time of India's MOM and USA's Maven Mars missions calculated?

How do the scientists calculate the correct time to launch the Mars mission so that the satellite travel time is less? How they are synchronizing the speed of satellite with respect to earth and mars ...
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### Why is the Moon receding from the Earth due to tides? Is this typical for other moons?

After reading the Q&A Is the moon moving further away from Earth and closer to the Sun? Why? about the tides transferring energy to the Moon and pushing it from Earth, I have a question: How is ...
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### Is there any planet/star bigger than VY Canis Majoris?

Compared to the VY Canis Majoris , our Sun is more like a speck of space dust . Is there any planet or star , which is known to us, bigger than the VY CM ?
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### What range of exit pupils work for observing the full moon?

I'm observing the full moon, from a major city, with heavy light pollution and dust. The objective size is fixed, for this comparison, something between 4 and 6 inches. The question is about the ...
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### 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 - ...
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### Why didn't Johannes Kepler use data about more planets?

In Astronomia Nova (1609) Johannes Kepler used observations of Mars in order to refute circular orbits. Throughout Astronomia Nova he hardly even mentions other planets than Mars, Earth and the Sun ...