# Tag Info

## Hot answers tagged solar-system

6

The current explanation for this is something called the frost line (which changes over time). At greater distances from the Sun, a body will receive less and less radiation, and so it will be colder than if it were closer to the Sun. Eventually, conditions become cold enough for volatiles to condense into grains. These volatiles make it possible for ...

2

The nemesis theory proposes that a low mass star or brown dwarf in highly elliptical orbit is a companion to our sun as a solution to the cyclical mass extinction problem (http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/the-next-mass-extinction/413884/) and (http://www.space.com/22538-nemesis-star.html). Scientists noticed that some mass extinctions ...

2

Cassini is supposed to have used its VIMS spectrometer to observe a Venus transit from Saturn in December 2012. NASA said it was a first. They were more interested in an absorption spectrum than an image. Celestia can model such events. Here is a video of a simulated grazing Jupiter transit from Saturn. There are similar videos of Saturn transits from ...

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The sun by far occupies the largest part of the solar system's mass. The mass of the sun happens to be approximately $(1.98855±0.00025)×10^{30}$ kg. Which is immensely huge. By comparison the inter-planetary medium though may occupy a large volume is nowhere dense enough to even compare to the mass of the sun which is approximately 99% of the solar system's ...

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I would propose Enceladus. Enceladus has diameter smaller than even Mercury. From the nearside of a tidally-locked moon, the parent planet, Saturn, would appear nearly stationary. Being stationary Saturn might be viewed as the “center of the universe” instead. Being on a moon as oppose to the parent planet, with other moons orbiting along with your own, it ...

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