Questions tagged [solar-system]
Questions regarding the Sun and objects orbiting it.
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The compatibility of the Grand Tack hypothesis with the “core-warping impact” theory of Jupiter's diffuse core
In recent years, the Juno mission revealed that Jupiter's core was much more diffuse than astronomers had expected.
One theory is that "within a few million years" of its formation, Jupiter ...
2
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1answer
48 views
How close would the sun have to get to a supermassive black hole to have Jupiter stripped and slingshot into interstellar space?
Please make whatever assumptions are needed. Assume sun approaches black hole on some sort of hyperbolic trajectory. Assume size of supermassive black hole is same as the one at center of our galaxy....
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1answer
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So, what, exactly, is a tropical period?
From timezone.com's On the Units of Time Part III: The Year February 19, 2001, by Edward Hahn:
Uh, Oh…He’s Going to Ask That Question Again…
So, what, exactly, is a year?
@PM2Ring's comment
...
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21 views
Why were solar constant measurements before TSIS-1 all about 0.3% high?
Phys.org's Solar energy tracker powers down after 17 years says:
"The big surprise with TSI was that the amount of irradiance it measured was 4.6 watts per square meter less than what was expected,"...
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2answers
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Is a year really 365.24 days, or is it 365.2564 days like I remember?
The NPR News item and podcast Spring Starts Today All Over America, Which Is Weird includes the following:
But why isn't the time of the equinox the same each year?
The short answer is that ...
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Satellite grids around other planets [closed]
We send a lot of rovers to Mars, as interesting as the planet could possibly be. But why are we not putting satellite grids around planets that could transmit superficial probe data at the very least?...
1
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1answer
63 views
What would be the best inertial reference frame to describe objects in the solar system (other than the solar system's barycenter)?
For the purpose of a project, I require the components that describe the inertial frame to be as independent as possible from solar system bodies itself. Since the solar system barycenter is itself ...
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4answers
248 views
Why is there no concavity in the orbit of the moon around the Sun?
Such questions have been asked here and I have read the answers some of which are quite informative. However, I want an answer that's straightforward.
I have gone through the following paper by A B ...
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1answer
89 views
How frequently are other planets in the Solar system hit by meteorites?
How frequently are other planets in the Solar system hit by meteorites? For example, is the rate per unit area about the same?
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0answers
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Are the planets Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune losing mass?
My understanding is that Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter are all losing mass due to their gravity, temperature, and the solar wind. But what about Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? Mercury has a ...
0
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1answer
36 views
Is it only possible to look at solar systems with stars at least as old as ours to be able to find intelligent life?
Assuming the speed it takes to development intelligent life is the same in all solar systems, would we need to look at exoplanets with stars as old or older than ours to find intelligent life? A young ...
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2answers
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Which celestial body's length of day is closest to that of Earth?
I know the planets Mars and Eris are among bodies that have the most Earth-like mean solar days (about 24.67 and 25.9 hrs). Among moons there is Mimas of Saturn which has one of the most Earth-like ...
3
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1answer
124 views
The Solar System formation
I've recently watched one conversation (I won't post a link since the conversation is not in english) involving a physicist (at least he claims so), who spoke about probabilistic estimates of the ...
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2answers
108 views
Largest body in the solar system that a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher could escape
What is the largest (most massive) known body in the solar system that a professional pitcher could throw a baseball off of, i.e. that has an escape velocity lower than ~102 MPH? (45.33 m/s)
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Is the angle of the Earth's orbit on the Galactic plane changing (towards 180 degrees)? [duplicate]
Currently the angle of Earth's orbit is aroun 60 degrees on the Galactic plane. But is this angle changing?
2
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1answer
105 views
Precision in the measurement of the distance to the Sun
How precisely can the distance to the Sun be measured? Wikipedia says the distance to the Moon can be measured upto millimeter precision. But Wikipedia article on distance to the Sun says only about ...
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0answers
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If the hypothetical planet beyond the Kuiper belt exists, is it likely there are even more planets farther outside?
Since 2016 there are hints that a (probably) ice giant planet may exist far beyond the Kuiper belt. There are speculations that it may be a rogue planet captured by the Sun. But is it likely that ...
4
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48 views
What is happening with these solar particles detected near the Sun that is so newsworthy?
Phys.org's Team identifies low-energy solar particles from beyond Earth near the Sun links to the open access ApJ article Properties of Suprathermal-through-energetic He Ions Associated with Stream ...
5
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1answer
990 views
What does the Sun look like from Eris at its aphelion?
At its aphelion (most distant location from the Sun) the outermost-known planet Eris is about 100 times as far from the Sun as Earth. What does the Sun look like from Eris' surface? Is there still a ...
4
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1answer
103 views
Peculiar Amplitude of Earth's Orbit in Z Axis
I'm currently building an N-body simulator for my masters project and I'm using JPL's Horizons system to compare against.
I started with just a couple orbits and everything seemed to be working ...
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0answers
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How was the Messenger spacecraft used to measure Mercury's orbital precession to such accuracy? Could this have been done using radar?
This comment under an answer to Path of Mercury and general relativity mentions that the Messenger spacecraft was used to measure the precession of Mercury's orbit to such accuracy that the tiny ...
4
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1answer
148 views
How is the Gould Belt younger than the sun?
Our sun is located in the Gould Belt, a group of stars which is thought to be 30 - 50 million years old. However, the sun formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Did the belt form around us?
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0answers
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Is there any planet or satellite in the solar system in the process of getting tidally locked?
According to
Tidal locking
The effect arises between two bodies when their gravitational
interaction slows a body's rotation until it becomes tidally locked.
Over many millions of years, the ...
0
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0answers
39 views
Who first named the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn? [duplicate]
Who first named the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn?
Agnes Clerke's Catholic Encyclopedia article "Astronomy in the Bible" § Planets claims that "Venus and Saturn are the only ...
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1answer
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Is there a verification of the solar system barycenter as it is theoretically determined?
The barycenter of our solar system is not the sun, but a changeable location outside of the center point of the sun. A often used diagram of that relation is shown below, originated from the Wikipedia ...
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2answers
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Where can I find Helium 3 in our solar system?
What are the best locations within the solar system to find Helium 3 excluding the Sun? Where is Helium 3 most abundant after the Sun?
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0answers
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X-rays, Solar wind and Sun's corona
I was reading that Solar corona emits the solar wind however also X-rays. What is the difference during the creation of these effects and impacts on our atmosphere?
Thank you!
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1answer
36 views
For any given meteor shower in a given year (e.g. Quadrantids, now) where can I see a rough prediction of how many days it will last?
For a given shower the rate hitting the Earth's atmosphere versus time is usually a peak with a width of a few days, though there are some exceptional unicors.
Is there a place where I can view this ...
3
votes
1answer
56 views
What is the current angle of motion of the sun with respect to the Galactic Plane?
I understand that the solar system oscillates in its motion around the Milky Way. However at any given time, there must be a specific angle between the current direction of the solar apex and the ...
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2answers
87 views
Visibility of a planet on the other side of the Sun
Context: I've been having a discussion with my vectors and mechanics professor (course Mathematics BSc) about a problem on a recent coursework. The following is the model I came up with. I'm not an ...
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54 views
Skyfield Subpoint() usage
Is subpoint() in skyfield used for finding subsolar point?, i cant find examples in this link subpoint. How can i use it to find ...
2
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0answers
49 views
Does the axis of solar system precess during it's motion in the Milky way galaxy?
The plane of solar system makes an angle of 60° with the plane of galaxy. So, the axis of solar system should make 30° angle with the galactic plane. Like the axis of Earth precess over a long period, ...
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0answers
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What is the typical chemical composition of the most common asteroid types?
I'm trying to make a semi-scientific accurate game where you can find/mine asteroids. I want the composition of asteroids, and how common they are to be correct. Or at least as close to correct as ...
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votes
1answer
57 views
What's the difference between semi-major axis and apoapsis?
The semi-major axis is half of the diameter of the major axis of an ellipse by definition. So how does that make it any different from apoapsis, the furthest point an object is from a parent body in ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
Delay of Moon passing a defined meridian each day
On the website Lunar Synodic Curve a nice image of an Moon analemma is shown together with an explantion on the reason why for the different phases of the Moon the images have to be taken with 24h ...
0
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1answer
117 views
Could Planet Nine be much smaller than thought previously?
In 2016, Caltech astronomers began testing a Planet Nine hypothesis to explain the eccentric and inclined orbits of distant dwarf planets such as Sedna, 2015 TG387, Niku, and 2012 VP113. The ...
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0answers
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Why do CME's “zig-zag” on their way to Earth?
This answer states:
A single CME will impact a spacecraft from only one direction, but that direction might not be directly from the sun because a CME may zigzag en route.
Looking at that link, ...
4
votes
3answers
146 views
How long is the Sun closer to Earth then Mars is?
A recent question at Space.se has generated a few comments that are interesting.
But the answer to one particular comment to might address a lot of misconceptions.
I imagine the actual halfway ...
6
votes
2answers
127 views
what is the resolution of the magnitude that is distinguishable to the naked eye?
Or is it possible to spot the changing brightness (magnitude) of a planet with a naked eye
The context of the question is this: If I'm not mistaken Ptolemy was able to say (using observation alone) ...
5
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1answer
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Can we use Breakthrough Starshot spacecraft to detect any unknown massive object in our solar system?
For example, the hypothetical Planet Nine.
Since we just want to prove or rule out the existence of Planet Nine in our solar system, we can avoid most of the technical challenges for StarChip (camera ...
3
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1answer
110 views
What is the distance between the solar systems towards the center of galaxy?
The distance from our Solar System to the nearest is roughly 260,000 AU. I am wondering what is the minimum distance between two Solar Systems. Since the center of our galaxy is supposed to be more ...
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0answers
56 views
Does plasma recombination in the solar wind happen to any significant or measurable degree?
Comments below this answer to Why does the Solar Wind consist of charged particles? have led me to ask the following:
Question: Does plasma recombination in the solar wind happen to any significant ...
6
votes
1answer
3k views
Starting a fire in a cold planet that was full of flammable gas
What would happen to a cold planet that has a large amount of flammable gas, like Neptune, if we throw some fire into it? Will it burn, or would the flame be extinguished due to the cold?
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2answers
263 views
Can fish and other sea creatures survive in watery planets like Neptune or any other planets that has water?
I'm a bit curious since Neptune does not have a land surface and it is covered with water, I mean water has oxygen right? What will happen if we put some sea creatures in these watery planets? Can ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
How was Cassini able to measure and use the Earth-Mars distance to get the Earth-Sun distance?
How was Cassini able to measure and use he distance between Earth and Mars to get the Earth-Sun distance? How were the ratios of Earth-Mars and Earth-Sun calculated then? Given Kepler's laws all we ...
5
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2answers
117 views
How would a small nearby black hole be detected and confirmed as such?
This article suggests that there might be a tennis ball-sized black hole orbiting the Sun somewhere beyond the orbit of Neptune. According to the article, observational anomalies of trans-Neptunian ...
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2answers
3k views
How do we know Nemesis is not a black hole (or neutron star)?
Nemesis, the hypothetical "death star", is supposed to be a massive body that orbits the Sun at long distances and periodically sends comets from the Oort Cloud into the inner solar system. These ...
2
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2answers
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 ...
3
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1answer
101 views
Where would an object fly to if it were to leave the gravitational field of Earth? And would it stop somewhere? What would happen to it?
My 3,5 year old son is asking :-) He can take answers for a 15 yo I think. Many thanks for your help!
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2answers
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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.
