# All Questions

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### questions about spiral galaxy arms

I have 2 questions related to spiral galaxies. firstly, how did the arms form? why would the stars accumulate into those specific areas? and secondly, why are they still intact? the inner parts of the ...
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### Why aren't the farthest objects close to each other?

The last years we find some objects like this : MACS0647-JD which are more than 13 billion light-years away from us. This means that the picture we get was created only some million years after the ...
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### Can the martian dichotomy (SIH) and the moon's formation (GIH) be related?

If we assume that the Single Impact Hypothesis regarding the martian dichotomy (wikipedia) and the Giant Impact Hypothesis regarding the Moon's formation (wikipedia) are true, then is it possible that ...
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### Though experiment about the outskirts of the universe

Suppose I aim at some object that is 13 billion light years away from Earth. Let's assume I have a twin that pilots a ship that travels in infinite speed, meaning that he can reach that object and ...
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### Fate of the Spiral Arms of the Milky Way and Andromeda

In a few billion years, the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide. Chances are, there won't be many spectacular stellar collisions, and there's a pretty good chance that the Solar system (and most ...
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### What is the exact position of the Large Magellanic Cloud?

I am not able to visualize the position of the LMC and have not found a satisfactory explanation... Can someone please answer it this way? Relative to a ray joining the Earth to the ...
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### What is the relative time difference between us and a star system in outer layer of our galaxy?

Just curious to know what will be the time difference between someone living on the outer layer of our galaxy and us, considering the known facts that Time is relative to gravity Our sun goes around ...
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### Any results from the B-mode CMB polarization measurements?

Why is the relation between primordial gravitational waves of the early universe, and the minor polarization deviations of the cosmical microwave background? AFAIK the CMB is coming from the 300000 ...
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### Are there stars that don't emit visible light?

Are there stars that do not emit any light in the visible part of the EM spectrum?
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### World line coordinate finiteness

If you trace two particles' world line backwards in time, according to current theory, both objects should converge at big bang. Would both objects arrive there simultaneously? Another way of asking ...
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### Time after sunset until star can be seen

Given a star's apparent location and apparent magnitude, how how many degrees below the horizon must the sun be for the star to be visible to the naked eye for an observer on Earth at a specified ...
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### Is there a paper on galaxy mergers in clusters of galaxies?

I'm looking for something to cite about galaxy mergers in clusters of galaxies. I need numbers on the frequency of mergers in the outer parts of galaxy clusters vs. the cluster center. In the center ...
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### How many light years away is Earth from the closest outer edge of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?

How many light years is Earth away from the closest outer edge of the supermassive black hole in Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way? I don't mean the distance to the center of the galaxy, ...
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### Which spiral arm of the Milky Way is Kepler-62 in?

I am trying to find out which spiral arm of the Milky Way the star Kepler-62 and its planetary system are in. All I can find by Google searching is that it is part of the Lyra constellation, but I ...
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### Star System Formation questions

I'm making a game in which I'd like to randomly generate star systems. Which is cool. The trouble I'm having is working out exactly what limits I need to place on the generation. So far, the ...
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### How do black holes evaporate?

Will black holes evaporate, if they evaporate? When and why do they evaporate? What are the conditions for evaporation? Under what principle do they evaporate?
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### Can we see the Big Bang happen if we look far enough?

The observable universe is constantly expanding as more light from the Big Bang reaches us. This light has been travelling for billions of years, so we are looking at the universe as it was a few ...
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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 the Gaia telescope detect small temporarily captured asteroids near its Lagrange orbit?

The Gaia space telescope is in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2. The orbit period is about 180 days and the size of the orbit is 263,000 x 707,000 x 370,000 km. It has been ...
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### Why do (most of) the planets rotate counterclockwise, i.e. the same way the Sun does?

Referring to the mechanisms explaining the solar system formation and to the initial rotation of the gaseous cloud that collapsed, I understand easily why the planets orbit the Sun the same way this ...
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### Would bagging an asteroid destroy valuable science about it?

NASA has a plan called "Asteroid Redirect Mission option A". It would robotically put an asteroid of a few meters diameter in a bag and push it into reach of astronauts for thorough examination. 44 ...
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### Multiple apparent lunar eclipses last night

I saw something very strange last night that I'm hoping someone can help me explain. I was sitting on my roof with a night-cap at about 3am last night. The moon, about the last quarter, was low in the ...
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### What type of energy is escaping from black-hole's poles?

Following this article, it is stated that: As a star drifts too close to a supermassive black hole, intense tidal stresses rip the star to shreds. As this happens, the shredded material will ...
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### Why don't planets give off their own light? [closed]

Why don't the planets glow like stars?
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### Why aren't there galaxy-sized balls of iron out there?

Since we know that stars burn out, collapse, or blow up when too many of their atoms fuse inti iron, then how come, with all the ancient galaxies we've been observing, there isn't one galaxy whose ...
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### Why do some celestial bodies have atmospheres, and not others?

Question is rather self-explanatory. An answer touching upon how/why atmospheres are formed in the first place would be ideal as well. An example of such astral bodies would be The Earth and it's ...
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### How was an infrared picture of the entire universe taken?

(click to enlarge) How was this picture of the supposed entire universe taken in infrared? Also, why does it seem as though almost all of the matter is in a line formation over the center? It makes ...
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### the length of second, minute or hour, what defines the time of exo planetary bodies

we measure time based on earth and earth mass\gravity plays a role in the measurement ? so how and what would be time if not earth time on other exo planets since they will be having different ...
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### The face of the moon at moonset

It appears that the face of the moon "rotates" clockwise from the time the moon rises to the time it sets. Tycho's crater seems more to the left and the "Rabbits head" looks like it's facing down ...
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### Is Rosetta changing the theory of comets?

Rosetta is now arriving at Comet 67P. Other comets have been analyzed to some degree (Giotto, Deep Space 1, Deep Impact, etc.) So my question is... where I can study the up-to-date theory of ...
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### Original Hubble diagram units incorrect?

Figure 1 from Hubble 1929 has velocity with units of km. Is this just a typo or was there a reason the plot is printed this way?
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### Problem with Python [migrated]

I'm using Python 2.7.3 on my Debian server. Here is the input code: import aplpy import pyfits from numpy import * import matplotlib as plt import montage as montage_wrapper import PIL ...
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### Contradiction between Theory of Relativity and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation?

Newton's Law of Universal Gravity states that an object will accelerate constantly as it falls. Let's assume an object falling into a black hole. According to Newton's Law, when it reaches the event ...
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### What is star composition after formation

Most descriptions of star ignition go something like... The star reaches a critical mass and ignites, blowing away the surrounding material. The most obvious question would be "Why are stars not all ...
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### Can we conclude with reasonable certainty that there is/are no Type 3 Civilizations in our galaxy?

As per the Kardashev Scale, type-3 civilizations are defined as "civilization(s) in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy, with energy consumption at ~ 4 x 10^44 erg/sec". Considering ...
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### Starting out in practical astronomy [closed]

I want to start observing the night sky, what advice would you give to get started?
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### How is space-time bent by black holes?

I just read When a star becomes a black hole, does its gravitational power become stronger? and it confused me a bit; I always thought black holes are supermassive and that is why they bend ...
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### Telescope on polluted environment

this one bothering me,to buy a telescope. I live in a city,unfortunately with dust and polluted air, is there any affect in viewing a nice capture of our galaxy? Or i need to buy a special telescope?
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### Infinite universe? How? [duplicate]

So it seems the overall thought is that the universe is infinite. I don't get how. Most depictions I read mention something to the effect of "at 1^-20 seconds the universe was the size of _". ...
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### Potential Re-Capture of Rogue Planets

Rogue planets can be designated as rogue planets due to one of two possible scenarios: 1) the "rogue planet" formed as a sub-brown dwarf, or 2) the planet was ejected from its home star system. I want ...
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### Beta profile fit of Virgo cluster gas?

I'm looking for the parameters $r_c$, $\rho_0$ and $\beta$ in a $\beta$-profile fit of the Virgo cluster's ICM density. I just can't find a reference for it. Unlike for Coma (Abell 1656) where it's in ...
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### Weight of a celestial body

How do astronomers find out the correct weight of a planet tough there isn't any direct means to weigh them?What technique do they use?Just curious!
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### Data for red-shifting

I am looking for basic data regarding red-shifting that comes with reliable measure of distance of the emitting star.
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### How to polar align an equatorial mounted telescope when you are close to the equator?

I recently moved to southern Mexico (16 degrees N) and I wonder what would be the best way to align my EQ telescope when the polar star is not visible?
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### Electron Degeneracy Pressure and the Pauli Exclusion Principle

I have read that what keeps white dwarfs from gravitational collapse is electron degeneracy pressure. How does this pressure prevent further collapse, and how is it related to the Pauli Exclusion ...
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### Under Earth's gravitational pull, how dense would an object have to be to reach its Schwarzschild Radius?

The Schwarzschild Radius is a theoretical radius, that if the mass of the object was compressed into that certain radius, the escape speed from the surface of the compressed object would equal the ...
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### Name of area close to Local Bubble?

The following image is a map of the area surrounding the Local Bubble. One side of the image is 1700 lightyears. From the Sun to the Hyades (immediately below the sun) it is 150 lightyears. The local ...
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### fit sine wave to data [migrated]

I have some astronomical data which I know has a sinusoidal component to it of the form y = Asin(Ωt+Φ). The period of the sinusoid is equal to a sidereal day. So ...