# All Questions

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### Is the Oort Cloud actually opaque, or is the “cloud” used euphemistically because minor planets inside of it are too dim to be seen?

I did read several of the Oort Cloud questions/answers which I found very helpful and instructive, but this question still persists for me: Is the Oort Cloud actually opaque, or is the "cloud" used ...
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### Why can't we observe the Oort cloud with a telescope?

The Oort cloud is a hypothetical structure based on our observation of long-period comets. There are currently proposals to design probes to confirm the existence of the Oort cloud. Now, sending a ...
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### Is it possible to use the stars to determine the passage of time?

I'm writing a science fiction short story which involves a group of people being in suspended animation for a very long period of time, on the order of thousands of years. My question is, would an ...
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### Is it possible that some stars are already black holes yet we see light emitted from before becoming a black hole?

For stars we see that are burning fuel at a fast rate, that are very bright, (or any star for that matter sufficiently far away from us) could it be that they are already black holes (the sufficiently ...
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### Galactic extinction as a function of distance

I am looking at several galactic sources in the $I$, $R$ and $V$ bands and I want to calculate their absolute magnitudes. I can get the apparent magnitude and I know the distance so I just need to ...
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### Is there any practical use for astronomy?

Although astronomy is very cool and the things we are learning are awesome, is there really any practical use to knowing the things we know about the universe? Do other fields of science draw from ...
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### Leaving the Milky Way

If we had a hypothetical spacecraft, would it be possible to exit our galaxy, wait for some time and enter back into another section? Will this method be more efficient that a more traditional flight ...
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### what is a Friedmann model?

Can you explain what is a Friedmann model to a layman? And also give some examples of Friedmann models, specially I would like to know if the lambda-CDM model is considered a Friedmann model.
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### Free source of printable star charts in the format of the Millennium Star Atlas?

I've been looking for sources of printable electronic star charts - there seem to be many different ones available, either as part of planetarium software or just plain charting packages. But there's ...
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### What is the minimum size of a ball of gas to become a star?

I know there are two criteria to meet in order for nuclear fusion to occurs. High temperature (many times temperature at Sun's core) High pressure (protons are very close to each other) [Goal] ...
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### How can I calculate how the debris of an object ripped apart at the Roche limit will spread out?

Let's say I have a moon orbiting a planet at a distance $d$. Eventually, $d \leq d_R$, where $d_R$ is the Roche limit of the moon-planet system. I can figure out the mass of both bodies by experiment, ...
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### Why are distant objects observed in the near infrared?

I was reading an article that explains why JWST is a successor to Hubble and not a replacement for Hubble. They explained that Hubble's science pushed astronomers to look at longer wavelength. And ...
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### Nebula and galaxies using 70mm scope

Telescope: Orion 09843 SpaceProbe 3,3 inch aperture(76mm), 700mm focal length, eyepieces - 25mm and 10mm focal lengths. Please tell me whether it is possible to see nebula and galaxies.
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### The Existence of Natural Satellites in Geostationary Orbits

While browsing through Physics SE, I noticed a question about satellites in geostationary orbit (unrelated to the one I'm asking here), and for a moment I interpreted it as referring to natural ...
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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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### Around what apparent magnitude can the naked eye observe an object during full moon

For a very rough guideline using healthy/corrected eyes adjusted to the dark, around how bright should an object be to expect it to be visible?
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### What is the largest object on which the Yarkovsky effect has been observed?

The Yarkovsky effect is responsible for changes in the rotation and orbit of some celestial bodies, most notably asteroids. It has been measured on asteroids, such as 6489 Golevka and 1999 RQ36. What ...
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The further away we see, the older states of the world we observe. And the volume of the part of space which is observable, increases by the square of the distance to it. So there should basically be ...
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### BIG CRUNCH Theory

Someday before i read about a article which explained about a phenomenon called BIG CRUNCH, according to it the way Big Bang happened because of which the remains moved away from one another forming ...
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### Why did Earth need material from comets to assemble the raw materials for life?

It's often speculated that matter from comets played a crucial role in the development of life on Earth. For example, Maps of Time says, Many of the ingredients of the early atmosphere (including ...
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### Likelihood of a stable system with a dwarf planet's orbit inside that of a gas giant

I keep thinking of various planetary system configurations, and would like to know: What are the fundamental references based on Monte Carlo long-term simulation of planetary systems' evolution that ...
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### are all the planet in the same plane? [duplicate]

are all the planet in solar system the same plane in the space or not ? if yes is there any especial reason ? and if no how do they orbits then ? as far as i know they are in the same plane , but is ...
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### Where is Mars in the night sky

I live around Houston, Texas and I'm taking advantage of Earth hour to look at the stars. I've found two objects that I think might be Mars. Both of them are in roughly the same plane as Venus and ...
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Stars can easily fuse atoms to give of heat and radiation. But at Wikipedia it said that only sub-iron atoms give of energy when fused and take energy when split, and post-iron atoms is the exact ...
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### Is there a threshold on distance/size for a tidal locking?

I know that some systems tend to tidal locking (such as earth-moon), which occurs basically because the difference in the gravitational pull on one side is significantly different from the pull on the ...
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### Proof that Parallel Universes exist

Today I heard on the radio that the Super Collider has discovered mini black holes. They said that this discovery is proof of the existence of Parallel Universes and that the "Big Bang" never ...
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### Variables in the Instability Strip

I was thinking about the possibility of determining what phase of evolution a variable star is in when it is located in the instability strip (say, a Cepheid object). Can you differentiate whether it ...
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### How do you calculate the lookback time distance to a given galaxy?

By lookback time distance I mean the same as Light travel distance. Can you calculate it by just knowing its redshift?
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### 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 ...
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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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### Could someone see anything while being inside black hole?

If we managed to survive in a black hole and move inside the event horizon then could we see the surroundings of the black hole inside the event horizon by source of light? Can the light not come up ...
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### Does the sun have a feature like the red spot on Jupiter?

Does the sun have a feature or prominence like the red spot on Jupiter? Is there a feature that will remain as long as the red spot? Maybe beneath the surface?
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### Recombination question and arrow of time

Before recombination was there any present, past or future since photons were "trapped" and couldn't make that measurement possible?
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### Help identifiying a Diagram

Has anyone ever seen a similar diagram? I overlapped this image onto another and some of the lines line up. I'm trying to find a pattern that fits this. Sorry if this isn't the place for this ...
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### How to convert horizontal coordinates using NOVAS?

I'm using NOVAS 3.1. I know that I can convert equatorial coordinates to horizontal coordinates using the equ2hor function. Is it possible to make NOVAS do the ...
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### Find constellation over Earth coordinates on a specific date-time

I would like some help in finding the exact constellations, or some sort of visualization of the stars over an specific location an time. The idea is to find out the closest star or group of stars on ...
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### damage from an Asteroid

If an Asteroid, the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs , passed by very close to the Earth but still remained outside of Earth's atmosphere, would it cause any damage ?
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### How did water get on Earth

I recently read that water more then likely got here by comets (carrying water) hitting the Earth. However it also it says the impact of a comet hitting the Earth is much greater then an atomic bomb. ...
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### How can you determine the initial volume of a planet's atmosphere?

Since the surface pressure of a planet is determined by the mass of the column of gasses above it one would surmise that to determine the pressure you must know the volume and mass of the atmosphere. ...
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### What is the direction of the movement of the solar system in relation to the galaxy's plane

I got from this answer that the axis of the solar system is tilted of about 63 degrees in relation to that of our galaxy, so I can assume that we move through space (at least locally) roughly in a ...
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### Do we still use the term “astronomical unit” nowadays?

An astronomical unit is defined as the measurement of distance between Earth and our Sun, my question is since distances between celestial objects beyond our solar system are vast and unimaginable ...
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### Naming of the planets of the solar system

Planets of the solar system have been named with Roman mythology gods names. I have a few questions on my mind concerning that subject for a while: Who decided to name them like this? When did the ...
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### The More I Measure, The Faster I Travel [closed]

Basically, the theme is "The More I Measure The Faster I Travel" As part of an antithesis, I am trying to destroy this statement. Can anyone help?
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### Enhanced Star-Gazing with Special Glasses

I watched a video yesterday on how telescopes not only magnify images but also increase the amount of light entering into your eye, allowing you to see things not normally visible with naked eye. ...
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### Can an asteroid have a molten core? [migrated]

Most natural satellites in our solar systems is expected to contain a fission furnace at it's core, some of these moons do have a striking resemblance to an asteroid. I'm wondering if we could ...
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### Aren't there more naked-eye-visible stars in the Milky Way plane?

Most stars which are visible to the naked eye are within 1,000 light years. The Sun is inside the Orion arm which has a diameter of about 3,500 light years. Thus, all stars (with very few exceptions) ...
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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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### 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 ...