Questions tagged [interstellar]
The interstellar tag has no usage guidance.
16
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121 views
Estimate prevalence of ʻOumuamua-style interstellar obects inside Jupiter orbit now that C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) is found?
Now we know two of them, so maybe it's not an outlier.
We have two points so we can draw a line. How many similar macroscopic objects should be zipping through space at ~30 km/sec so that we would ...
2
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2answers
121 views
What makes scientists already so certain that Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) is a comet and not an asteroid?
US Naval Research Laboratory scientist Dr. Karl Battams has recently tweeted
Unlike 'Oumuamua, whose asteroid-or-comet nature still gets debated, this one is definitely a comet. If it is ...
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0answers
45 views
Hypothetical: Is the interstellar wormhole too close to the black hole? [closed]
Most reasonings about hypothetical wormholes say, that you need an extreme amount of energy to keep them open.
Given that, isn’t the worm hole too close to the black hole gargantua? The gravity ...
4
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3answers
194 views
What would you find within a void?
I'm aware that voids are relatively empty regions of the universe, but just how empty can they be? Wikipedia states that voids have 'few or no' galaxies, but I can't find much else.
To make my ...
2
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2answers
354 views
What fraction of starlight, seen from Earth, is actually reflected light?
Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.
Some of the starlight from outside the ...
4
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2answers
172 views
How do we know about the origin of ʻOumuamua?
How do we know that ʻOumuamua is interstellar and not otherwise? I fail to understand the logic that the extraordinary speed of the object proves it to be of interstellar origin, and that our sun's ...
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1answer
132 views
Our Solar System’s interstellar movement in relation to the Alpha Centauri System
Our solar system is moving at approx. 52,000 mph, so where is the Alpha Centauri system, which is assumed to be also moving through interstellar space at a similar velocity since it is part of our ...
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2answers
235 views
How did astronomers determine the path of 'Oumuamua so quickly?
The interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua was discovered on October 19, 2017. Once discovered, less than a month's worth of precovery observations were found on various sky surveys. By mid-November, ...
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1answer
61 views
Is it possible for a solar flare in one star to influence the chances of a solar flare in another star?
Can a solar flare reach far enough to travel from one ordinary star to another? If so, how can that solar flare affect the following star?
2
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1answer
54 views
Interstellar bodies
Could a sun emit a large piece of matter that escapes it's gravity, and might eventually reach another solar system? And what would be the effect if a planet sized object reached our solar system and ...
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2answers
434 views
When would Oumuamua have entered the solar system?
So from what I've read, Oumuamua travels at around 26km/s when in interstellar space.
I also remember reading a while back that Voyager was travelling at around <...
5
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1answer
159 views
Potential formation mechanisms of the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua
NASA recently discovered 'Oumuamua, an interstellar asteroid that appears to have a very elongated shape, unseen in solar system asteroids.
What physical mechanisms, in the progenitor stellar system ...
15
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3answers
4k views
Why isn't interstellar medium pulled in towards nearest massive object?
How does the ISM resist gravity? That's the only force acting on it, and all other particles seem to collect together to form stars. What makes the ISM so special among other particles?
5
votes
1answer
286 views
Do liquids exist in the interstellar medium?
Am not asking about planetary/meteorite surfaces and am restricting myself to the interstellar medium
edit:
by interstellar medium I mean, the following:
"Interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter ...
4
votes
2answers
980 views
What's the mass of the interstellar neighborhood of the Sun?
What's approximatively the mass of the interstellar neighborhood of the Sun ?
(for example the neighborhood of radius 50 light-years).
Remark: The mass of the observable matter should be completed ...
2
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2answers
438 views
Why do comets come from our local Oort cloud instead of from interstellar sources?
Comets form where stars form. And they are then ejected by the orbital changes of giant planets. But why are they ejected to form specifically a local Oort cloud instead of going interstellar and ...
