Questions tagged [earth]
Questions regarding the planet on which humans live; the third planet from the Sun.
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Does the Lagrange L1 point have a 'size'?
Like in cubic kilometers, what is the size of L1 "area of influence"? being unstable I guess that size can vary?
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When did people discover that the Earth is not an ideal sphere, but a little flattened?
When did people discover that the Earth is not an ideal sphere, but a little flattened? And if you know, who was the first person to discover it?
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Storm on Earth vs. storm on Jupiter?
Why is the storm on Jupiter much stronger than storms on Earth and why don't the storms on Earth get as big as Jupiter's great red spot
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Angle of the Sun during winter solstice
What is the angle of the Sun on the eastern horizon at 35° latitude if it is the winter solstice?
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What is the size of the largest asteroid orbiting the Earth, other than the Moon?
It seems odd to me that no other asteroid around the Earth is even close to the size of the Moon. Anyone have any idea about the size and orbit radius of Earth's "second moon" ?
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Perihelion dates and parameters
I have to find the perihelion and aphelion data for the 20th century for Earth. I found this table http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/perap2001.html, but no such table for the past century.
I ...
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Are there any planets or objects orbiting in Goldilocks zone?
I was wondering whether there were any objects that orbit the "goldilocks zone" besides our home planet earth, and how the goldilocks zone of our solar system is defined.
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How Long Will Earth's Year be When Our Sun Goes Red?
We live in a planet that orbits 93 million miles from a G-type main-sequence star, or "yellow dwarf". That is far enough for a revolution of 365 days. Such is the case of Kepler's Third Law of ...
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Is it possible that Venus was once a rogue planet? [closed]
As Venus rotates in clockwise direction, while other planets rotate in anti clockwise direction:
Is it possible that Venus was once a rogue planet?
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Does the magnetic field of earth restore?
The magnetic field of earth protects us from solar wind as we know it, but after the solar wind interacts our magnetic field.
Does the magnetic field of earth restore after it deflects the solar ...
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Can an Earth-like planet survive if our Sun went Supernova?
First, I would like to point out, yes, our sun does not have enough mass to be a candidate for Supernova, this is a scenario were our sun is though, and after the various life cycle stages of the sun ...
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Why do transits of Earth across the Sun seen from Mars follow a pattern of occurring after 26, 79 then 100 years?
According to this answer transits of Earth across the disk of the Sun as seen from Mars:
The (Arthur C.) Clarke story is quite correct. Earth (and Moon) would transit the sun from the viewpoint of ...
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When and where are we exposed to most cosmic radiation?
I understand the mechanical dynamics of being faced away from the Sun at night, having a lower altitude, not being in the weak points at the poles in the atmosphere, being in a valley and others ...
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How well would the Moon protect the Earth from an Asteroid?
Would the Earth fare better if the Moon blocked the meteor, comet, rogue planet, or otherwise rather than a direct impact? At what point would the Moon's debris would be an extinction event?
The ...
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Earth's perihelion vs winter solstice [duplicate]
I found that Earth's perihelion occurs roughly two weeks after winter solstice similar thing happens for summer solstice and aphelion. I understand what those terms mean but I don't understand the ...
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When did the first annular eclipse happen?
A few hundreds of millions of years ago, the moon was closer to the Earth than it is today and hence was of a bigger apparent size. This made every solar eclipse either total or partial. Over the ...
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Could the solar system survive in a void?
If the solar system were suddenly placed in the middle of a large void... would everything still function as normal?
Would we even notice any difference here on Earth apart from the night sky?
......
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What effect does Earth losing a part of its mass have, is there an impact on the Earth's orbit around the Sun?
This is a random question that popped into my mind. I'm not a physicist or astronomist, however, I am genuinely curious. Also, this is not intended as a science fiction question, but an actual science ...
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What keeps the planets of the solar system moving in their fixed orbits?
Models of the solar system show each planet moving around on its own orbit.
Is is really because of the Sun that every planets remains in its own fixed orbit?
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Origin of heavier elements on earth?
Earth is part of Solar system, which is said to have originated from condensation and mutual attraction in dense clouds of gasses and dust. If Sun is basically more than ninty percent hydrogen and ...
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Orbital decay of the Earth's orbit and Earth's moving closer to the Sun
If we consider orbital decay of the Earth's orbit, then can we counter argue with the following reasons?
Due to tidal effects transferring small amounts of angular momentum from the Sun's spin to ...
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Word for blue ring around the Earth
From certain positions in outer space the Earth will appear to have a blue ring around it when the viewer is in the shadow of the Earth and sunlight is passing through the atmosphere.
Here is a ...
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Does the sun have cycles causing temperature changes on Earth?
Can the Sun go through seasons or cycles to cause a temperature change?
Could the Sun have to go through any kind of thermal cycle to change the climate on Earth and by how much?
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How to caclulate the chinese Three Gorges Dam impact on Earth rotation? [closed]
According to this January 2005 NASA JPL News item NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth, the Three Gorges Dam has slowed down Earth's rotation by 0.06 microseconds per day.
Having that weight ...
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Are these real paths of planets as traced from Earth?
Few days a go, I came across these two pictures of paths of planets as observed from Earth. They have a perfect geometric shapes. Actually, to me they look so beautiful and perfect, that they appear ...
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Why is the equinoxes only 2 days and not more?
The earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees which means that in the solstices the north/south hemisphere is more radiated by the sun and the tilt to the sun is maximum.
In the equinoxes, the tilt is not ...
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Diamonds in Neptune?
In this publication from 1981, was shown that Neptune is raining diamonds:
Many of the current models of Uranus and Neptune postulate a three-layer structure, consisting of an inner rocky core, a ...
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Seasonal effect based on Earth position [duplicate]
I know that Earth rotates around the Sun in an oval route:
And I know the seasons happen, because the axis of the Earth is not vertical. I think it is 23 degree slope.
How come the distance from the ...
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Why is Earth's rotation considered fast?
I'm currently reading Atom (Krauss book), and in chapter 11 there is this text:
This collision can explain many things, including the high rate of spin of the Earth (the grazing collision would ...
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If Earth is tilted, why is Polaris always above the same spot?
Why is Polaris, the North Star, always above (or near) the North Pole? If Earth is tilted, Polaris' path should be in winter 23 degrees away from its path in summer, or not?
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Should the sun appear very low in the horizon if its path is always between the two tropics?
If the sun never rises above the tropic of cancer and never goes bellow (southern) of the tropic of capricorn then it seems that it should appear to the observer lower and lower in the horizon for as ...
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What is the origin of the term "plane of the spirit level"?
I have heard the term "plane of the spirit level" e.g. the sun's shadows is X degrees to the plane of the spirit level to signify the surface of the earth and I see it is a common term used in ...
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South of the tropics, where does the sun's noon shadow point?
If I understand correctly, in countries to the north of the tropics the sun's noon shadow points north.
What happens south of the tropics? Is it pointing south?
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Historical Day Lengths on Earth
I recently read something about a major earthquake in Japan having possibly shortened Earth's day due to an increase in rotation. Here's an example:
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/...
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Why hasn't the Earth fallen into the sun yet?
So the Earth's been orbiting the sun in a relatively stable orbit for billions of years now. during that time, it's been plowing through dust, and hit by comets and asteroids, presumably mostly from ...
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Why is the Earth called terrestrial? Can we call the Earth an ocean planet?
Why is Earth called a terrestrial planet even though it is 70% covered by water?
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Did the Moon ever approximate a geosynchronous orbit above the early Earth?
Simulations suggest the early Moon formed about 20,000 to 30,000 km away from Earth which is less than the current geosynchronous orbit of 42,164 km. The Moon is now 384,000 km away from Earth. Does ...
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The equation for calculating how many times Earth (or our solar system) has revolved around the Milky Way
I have seen it said on Quora and Reddit that it's about every 220-250 million years to go around the Milky Way from Earth. Wondering what the rough equation is for calculating it. That is, I guess, ...
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Angle between earth's angular momentum and earth's axis
I think this picture is correct because for earth astronomical day is slightly shorter than solar day. (Is it a rule of thumb for planets? Where can I read such data?)
Source
So the angle between ...
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What will be the temperature on Earth when Sun finishes its main sequence?
We know that presently Sun is 4.5 billion years into its main sequence. It has another 5 billion years before it enters the Red Giant phase. We also know that Sun's luminosity increases by 10% every ...
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Why are there no stars visible in cislunar space?
It’s very puzzling that the moon landing had no stars in the background, the ISS clips have no stars in the background. I listened to multiple astronaut interviews speak on what it looks like up in ...
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How far does the Earth travel around the Sun during each month of the year?
After reading about the Earth's orbit and how it moves faster in January than it does in July (based on its distance from the Sun), I started to wonder...
How far does the Earth travel around the Sun ...
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Why is the moon drifting? Shouldn't orbital decay bring it closer? [duplicate]
I noted that the moon drifts away from Earth a few centimeters each year.
However, I'm thinking that the emission of gravitational waves would deter such thing and cause the exact opposite. ...
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Official degrees of earth’s rotation per day
What is the official degree to one decimal point please, of the earth’s rotation in one single day. Can it be confirmed that it is exactly 360.0 degrees using official data? Thank you in advance.
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Is the moon inside earth’s atmosphere? If so, what are the consequences?
Recently, a paper was published claiming that the Earth’s atmosphere extends far beyond the Moon. This has been reported on by a number of news sources and websites, including the ESA, Business ...
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Angular diameter of the Sun's reflection from the ocean, seen from Sun-Earth L1?
I'm trying to understand how smooth the reflecting ocean surface would need to be to produce such a small bright spot as seen from the DSCOVR satellite at Sun-Earth L1. It appears to be only about 8E-...
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Are there pictures from a solar eclipse of the earth taken from a moon landing unit or orbiter?
Did any moon landing vehicle or orbiter took pictures of a solar eclipse happening on the earth, i.e. the moon's shadow on the earth? (Alternatively from other spacecraft showing the whole globe). A ...
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Can Earth be ejected out of the solar system this way?
I found this image of what maybe a model of our solar system. Without a credible source I'm not sure I am looking at a star or black hole that comes close to our solar system and how it could throw ...
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What's the proportion of Mars' surface compared to Earth's surface uncovered of water?
How does Mars surface compare to Earth's surface? Mars is quite smaller than Earth, but most Earth's surface is covered with water. I thought making the math could be relatively easy but Earth isnt a ...
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How close to circular is the Earth's equator
Earth's orbit is about 99% circular. How circular is Earth around the equator? I know it bulges around the equator and is a spheroid. I also know it is not smooth and has oceans and mountains and all ...