# All Questions

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### Do all planets have a van Allen radiation belt?

Earth has the van Allen radiation belts. Which other planets have one? Can it be determined if distant planets in other solar systems have one?
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### Why does the reduced equivalent width of a spectral line depend on surface gravity?

My question is why the reduced equivalent width of a spectral line depends on surface gravity. My professor wrote on the board that: \log(\frac{w}{\lambda}) = \log C + \log A + \log(g_n f) \lambda ...
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### accuracy of an artificial satellite at certain magnitude

When we say that 'accuracy of a satellite is 10 $\mu$as at $V = 20$ magnitude'. What does this mean. Does it change over time.
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### What is exactly the “longitude of the perigee”

Some moon phase calculation algorithms (apparently derived from Duffet-Smith's book, example here) seem to use a parameter called "longitude of perigee at epoch". What exactly is this? Can I assume ...
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### Do all stars have an oort cloud or is it a rare occurance?

Do all stars have an oort cloud like ours that will be filled with comets and other objects? If not, why are they not around every star?
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### What makes the moon, a super moon

Caught a sight of moon tonight (by chance) and came in surprise that moon looks thrice in size to its usual size. Mostly called as Blue moon. Didn't succeed in getting the details and explanations ...
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### Do magnetic fields affect planetary rings?

Planetary rings seem to generally form on the ecliptic plane because of the rotation of the planet, but I was wondering what kind of effect the magnetic field of the planet might have on the ring ...
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### Equation for solar radiation at a given latitude on a given exoplanet?

I'm trying to find equations that would help me determine the amount of solar radiation hitting a certain latitude on a certain planet given the following inputs: the degrees of latitude of the ...
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### How long is the moon full

Is the moon the most full only for one moment As stated here and here Or does if stay the same full for a longer period of time (maybe because, the sun is grater then it, and light spreads out) ...
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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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### Is the diameter of the observable universe a relative quantity?

The diameter of my observable universe is 90 billion ly measured in proper distance. But isn't lenght a relative quantity in the theory of Relativity? Could an observer moving at a different velocity ...
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### Could spy satellites use laser guide stars (for adaptive optics)?

Are sodium lasers useful for Earth observing space telescopes/spy satellites?
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### Does Pluto have impact craters?

I've heard from a lot of sources that Pluto doesn't seem to have any impact craters, but I see a few things that look like impact craters, highlighted in this picture: For comparison, here's ...
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### Can a astronomical telescope view objects on Earth

I am new to telescopes, and planning to buy an astronomical telescopes like "Celestron AstroMaster 114 EQ Reflector". Just curious to know that whether it can be used to view objects on earth ...
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### Astrology question

Sometimes, for fun, I generate astrological charts for friends. I did a couple today, one for my newborn nephew (born today 8/2/2015 in Israel), and one for my 8 year old son (born 4/23/2007 in ...
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### Why Earthian atmospehere is so thin?

Venus is somewhat lighter then Earth, yet has a much thicker atmosphere. One would imagine that the following should be true: During the formation phase, all inner planets had captured as much gas ...
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### What is space temperature around Earth?

What is the equilibrium temperature that a black body will reach at the Earth's distance from Sun?
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### How do I remove fungus from a telescope mirror?

I use a Celestron NexStar 130SLT Azimuthal Newtonian Reflector. I noticed that recently, due to the wet season, some tiny spots of what appears to be fungus have appeared. Having taking appropriate ...
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### How many galaxies are there in the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall?

The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall is "to date (February 16, 2015), it is the largest and the most massive structure known in the observable universe" (source). How many galaxies is the ...
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### What uncertainty does an error bar signify in astronomy?

When an astronomer talks about her/his topic and shows an X/Y-plot with error bars. What should one assume that those error bars represent? 1 standard deviation? Or 2? Or some specific significance ...
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### Eternally collapsing objects?

As has been pointed out by some scientists, that black holes aren't stable bodies but are eternally collapsing objects. How does one come to such a conclusion? Is hawking radiation related to this in ...
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### Has the conjunction between Venus, Jupiter, and Regulus only occurred twice in 2,000 years?

I recently heard the claim that mid-July, the "Star of Bethlehem" formed for the first time in 2,000 years, where the Star of Bethlehem is a three-way conjunction between Venus, Jupiter, and Regulus. ...
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### Available energy for potential life on Titan

There is an interesting discussion about whether there could be life on Saturn's moon Titan. (For example here.) The life could use reaction of hydrogen and acetylene which are being produced by ...
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### Is expanding universe adding potential energy?

A system with two massive bodies has potential energy proportional to their separation. Since the universe is expanding, is the potential (and total?) energy of such a system slowly increasing? What ...
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### Image sets for testing stacking algorithms?

I am looking for sets of astronomical images for testing different kinds of stacking algorithms. The idea is simple: if one has $N$ images of the same object, the signal-to-noise ratio of the ...
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### Does the shape of a supernova remnant depend on the progenitor star's magnetic field?

The magnetic field activity in a star can be very chaotic and my question is are they somehow related?
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### Review Content for my Comet Infographic

I've been hard at work in recent months on an infographic that details the anatomy of a comet... I'm a graphic designer and this is a fun little side-project of mine. It's only quite basic in terms of ...
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### Which structure is represented in this video (if any)?

I know this is not supposed to be precise since it is just a movie but I would suppose it is based on real things. In the Contact movie intro https://youtu.be/EWwhQB3TKXA?t=1m I think the Milk Way is ...
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### What is the difference between Space Dynamics & Astrodynamics in the engineering perspective?

Within the context of Aeronautics, there are seemingly different meanings corresponding to Space Dynamics and Astrodynamics... ...
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### How can I find out which known stars lie within or close to M8

I'm looking for a way to find stars within a certain region of space, the Lagoona Nebula in this case, based on what we currently know. Are there some databases that allow you to make such queries? ...
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### Does the mass of the observable universe ever change?

First do we have anyway to even estimate the mass of the entire observable universe? And then is there any data that shows mass being gained or lost? Would we ever know if someone was playing with ...
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### How easy is it to mine water on Ceres?

It has been suggested by some futuristic or sci fi leaning thinkers, that Ceres' surface might be mined for water to support human exploration and settlement of space. But NASA's Dawn mission and ...
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### How/where to check where the Sun is (constellation)?

I would like to check in which constellation the Sun was in at some time in the past, any recommendations how to do that?
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### How thick can planetary rings be?

This arose from a comment on Worldbuilding. We have data from four planets in the Solar System with rings, which doesn't make for a very good sample size. Observations of exoplanets could change ...
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### Is it possible to create a traditional clock solar system?

Is it possible to create the following system of satellites?: Place a satellite that orbits the some object X, once per day. Call it D. Place a satellite that orbits D, once per hour. Call it H ...
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### Orbiting and landing on non-sperical objects

If we orbit a non-spherical asteroid or moon at a sufficient distance I believe that we can consider it to be a point mass. Therefore we can take up a conventional orbit. Assuming our lander craft is ...
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### Where might a semi proficient amateur analyst participate in meaningful astronomical efforts

I am a retired engineer that has an ongoing interest in space efforts. In my youth I did work on the Apollo program but on propulsion and vehicle thermal control: not flight dynamics. I have ...
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### How common are exoplanets in distant orbits?

Are there many single transits in the Kepler data, which might be exoplanets with a longer orbital period than the time they have been observed for transits? Can any conclusions be drawn about how ...
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### What is the projection of Earth's axis on the sphere with the Sun in center (see explanation)

Seems like it is the most convenient SE community for this question.. Imagine the sphere, witch center is the Sun and radius is, say, ~1.5 distance from Sun to earth (in arbitrary time, precise ...
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### Could evaporating hot Jupiters have metallic hydrogen on their surfaces?

Jupiter is believed to have metallic hydrogen in its core. And gas giants that migrate to become hot Jupiters are believed to evaporate, have their atmospheres blown away by their nearby star. Can ...
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### Want to know the exact stream for cosmology

I want to persue higher study in cosmology.which iiser and which stream should I opt for??
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### When will the next summer solstice and a full moon coincide? What day?

What day will the summer solstice and full moon coincide? As far as I know the next time will be in 2016. I would like to know what day.
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### Why do the planets in our solar system orbit in the same plane?

(Yes I'm excluding Pluto from this the same way it was excluded for not being a planet) Observing the planets orbit of the Sun they all seem relatively planar and roughly all orbit along the same ...
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### Is there a limit to how hot a star can be?

I think that size and mass do not correlate to temperature, but then again these factors contribute to the internal pressure. I would like to know if there is a limit to how hot a star can get and ...
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### Do celestial bodies have many asteroids orbiting them?

Are there statistics on the expected number of asteroids (of various sizes) to orbit planets and moons in our (or other) solar systems? Do we know of other natural bodies orbiting the Earth (besides ...
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### What is the average color of the universe?

Our Earth, being a beautiful blue orb, has an overall perceived wavelength of somewhere near 470 nm, that being the wavelength of light blue, because the oceans play an enormous role in the weighted ...