# All Questions

483 questions
449 views

### Terrestrial Exoplanet Skies – I've Built a Visual Sky Chart. Is it Accurate?

I'm an artist (and science enthusiast) and I've been trying to find a comprehensive resource that would help me clearly identify likely sky colors (as perceived by human vision) for exoplanets that ...
400 views

### Is it “weird” that all disc galaxies rotate once every billion years?

In a recent paper (Cosmic clocks: A Tight Radius - Velocity Relationship for HI-Selected Galaxies by Meurer, et al.), it was noted in the conclusion that: [This] implies a constant orbital time of ∼...
99 views

### Why haven't more captured small moons been found?

Shouldn't captured moons have the same size distribution as asteroids? And asteroids are more common the smaller size they are. Moons are likely captured if they are in highly inclined orbits, and ...
434 views

### How to determine scalar-to-tensor ratio r from CMB polarization spectrum?

CMB polarization spectrum can tell us about the primordial scalar and tensor perturbation. By analyze B and E mode angular spectrum power spectrum and temperature power spectrum we can determine the ...
46 views

### How uniformly is cometary debris distributed along the entire orbit of the comet?

Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through debris shed by a comet (if I get that right). Does this mean that the entire orbit of the comet is strewn with debris? I suppose that the debris follows ...
161 views

### Planning to revisit Arthur Eddington's experiment from 1919

As the fateful day draws closer, the United States will host a celestial event that comes once in three generations. I plan to witness this first hand at the exact center of greatest eclipse. In the ...
381 views

### Horseshoe orbits and integration in C

I'm studying a particular case of the restricted three-body problem. It's been found that some objects follow a horseshoe orbit pattern, and I'm trying to sort out something through an integration ...
93 views

### Estimating the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection

I would like to know how I can estimate the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection of the right ascension and declination ...
126 views

### How would astronomical seeing on Mars differ from that on Earth?

Astronomical seeing is the limiting factor for the resolution of all but the smallest Earthbound telescopes. Source Stunning advances in adaptive optics (along with it's predecessor speckle ...
137 views

### What fraction of a star's hydrogen store will be fused over its lifespan?

A main sequence star will fuse some of its hydrogen, but not all. In massive stars ($>1.5M_\odot$) the core is convective but the rest of the atmosphere radiative and hence does not mix much: as it ...
175 views

### What is the limiting abundances of elements at the end of the stelliferous era?

Is there any reputable published source on expected elemental abundances at the end of the era of stellar fusion? I am here interested in the contents of galaxies; much of intergalactic gas will be ...
82 views

### Do mixed type remnant collisions produce anything interesting?

The recent detection of a binary neutron star inspiraling and colliding raises an interesting question in my mind. Type Ia supernovae are believed to be caused by white dwarf/regular star pairs and/or ...
65 views

### How can maser emission be unpolarized?

I was reading that: However, unlike Galactic sources such as W3(OH), the emission is unpolarized and the 1667 MHz line is stronger than the 1665 MHz line. but how is this possible? Does not the ...
54 views

### Has the Kepler data been examined for light curves due to phase changes of non-transitting hot Jupiters and other?

I found this article http://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2011/01/epjconf_ohp2010_03005.pdf from 2011 announcing that two dozen secondary eclipses of "hot Jupters" have been seen in ...
92 views

### What object in the universe is most opaque to neutrinos?

I had this thought, and my first guess was "high density = lots of absorption, so I guess it's neutron stars" but this physics.se question about that has a great answer which covers why that's ...
147 views

### What are Kepler's laws (as he wrote them)?

There are of course many, many sources that quote Kepler's laws of planetary motion. This is preventing me from finding out what I really want to know: which is - what are Kepler's laws as he wrote ...
77 views

### Can the period of the planet transit across the sun be calculated in the same way the eclipse year is?

I read from Wikipedia$-$Eclipse cycle that the eclipse year, which is the period of Earth's hitting a certain node of its orbit around the sun, that is, the ecliptic, and the moon's orbit around Earth,...
158 views

### Gravitational eddies across the galaxy?

I read about natural gravitational eddies that travel in a wave that black holes have. They also have a strong magnetic field. Does those eddies follow magnetic field lines of the rotating black hole? ...
82 views

### Error propagation methods for orbit parameters

Recently I've encountered an article in our local astronomical popularization magazine. It is about a well known task of Sgr A*-black hole's mass estimation. The article is written as a step by step ...
77 views

### Need help understanding stellar spectroscopy data from ESO

The European Southern Observatory webpage has a web page that has tabular spectrogram data from A. J. Pickles, University of Hawaii. There are over 130 .dat files there. Each one represents a ...
234 views

### Why did the moon have a distinct reddish edge tonight?

In Monterey, California, with a "half-moon" high in the sky at about 9 pm (2017-08-30), the moon had a distinct red outline on the outer edge of the NE quadrant; for awhile I saw it also on the outer ...
90 views

### What is the farthest reported distance from observer from which a solar system body has occulted a star?

I originally wrote "...farthest distance from Earth..." but changed to "observer" in case the occultation was observed from a space telescope. It may not matter much but I didn't want to over-...
58 views

### Is the Ordovician meteor event detectable in the lunar cratering record?

Approximately 468 million years ago there were a large number of L-chondrite meteorites falling to Earth. This is called the Ordovician meteor event and was probably the result of a large collision in ...
36 views

### What is the relation between the saros (18 years, 11 days, 8 hours) and the period of lunar nodal precession (18.6 years)?

I am wondering. I am sure that they are related. How can we derive one from the other?
67 views

### Is Spherical Astronomy by W. M. Smart a good book on positional/spherical astronomy?

I'm a math undergrad, but I'm really interested in learning positional astronomy; However, the only well-referenced textbook I've come up with is Spherical Astronomy by W. M. Smart. I would like to ...
90 views

### Which astronomer set his beard on fire because he left the cap off his telescopes finder?

There is a famous story of an experienced astronomer setting his beard on fire because he left the cap off his telescopes finder. I know it's said to be true of Galileo, but I thing it's relatively ...
36 views

### Meade LX200GPS electronic RA movement very slow

I use a Meade 200 LX GPS. Last night between viewings it was placed in Sleep mode. On return the scope was making noises as if the motor was running. The scope was stationary, but had moved to what ...
104 views

### What EM spectrum can stars be most cheaply observed using Remote Sensing during the day?

I would like to augment my GPS navigation with remote sensing of 'the sky.' I am looking for any astronomical body that can be perceived during the day. Maybe Pulsars emit something easily detected, ...
153 views

### When the Moon formed and early on, did it orbit over the Earth's equator?

Or was it always at about 5.14 degrees inclination or has the inclination changed over time? See diagram. James K's answer to this question got me thinking about this, and I don't mean to call him ...
151 views

### Is the wind's intensity on Mars similar to Earth?

I've read that in Mars' poles, the winds can be as fast as 400 km/h, when the poles are exposed to sunlight because the frozen $CO_2$ sublimes. I know that the Martian atmosphere is much thinner than ...
48 views

### Did the Juno mission locate Jupiter at the same precision as Saturn (4 km)?

Juno's low perijove should be great for measuring Jupiter's gravitational effect on Juno's orbit. Cassini together with VLBI has measured Saturn's location to within 4 km. Will Was Juno be able to ...
90 views

### Observatory control software

I'm setting up an observatory and I'm wondering what user-facing software would be best to use in terms of hardware control. There is a German mount, dome, focuser, filter wheel, various switches etc. ...
98 views

### Do differentials in the Earth's density cause the flyby anomaly?

The flyby anomaly is an occasional, unpredictable, and as yet unexplained discrepancy in acceleration of satellites when they pass close by the Earth. It causes an increase of up to 13 mm/s during ...
103 views

### Semimajor axis variations in co-orbital moons

I've been playing with simulations of co-orbital bodies similar to Saturn's moons Janus & Epimetheus- horseshoe orbits where the two bodies are of comparable mass- and I'm seeing some very odd ...
396 views

### What are the analysis steps in taking raw data from Kepler to a planetary system determination

I wish to get a concise list of the analysis steps required to take raw light data from a Kepler data set of a star through the steps needed to get to an analytical determination of the existence of a ...
2k views

### Exoplanet Temperature Calculations

I was given an exoplanet similar in size and distance to host star to our own earth. It's orbiting a star with luminosity six times our sun, the greenhouse coefficient 0.3, bond albedo 0.3. I need to ...
92 views

### Why can primordial tensor perturbations of the CMB be ascribed to gravitational waves?

Why can primordial tensor perturbations of the CMB be ascribed to gravitational waves? Is this attribution unique, or are there other mechanisms that could lead to the excitation of tensor modes? In ...
43 views

### Motivation for using $\sigma_{8}$?

Press-Schechter formalism allows one to universally quantify the number of massive dark matter halos in a given volume -- The Halo Mass Function. The density contrast is given by the rms mass variance ...
73 views

### Are brown dwarfs which dont sustain any fusion considered stars?

I was reading about the coolest stars , and surprised to find about stars with a surface temperature lower than a candle, like 2MASS 0939-2448 A/B, of about 100 celsius like CFBDSIR 1458+10B and even ...
162 views

### How stable is our universe?

I've been reading and thinking about this subject for some time but i can't seem to find a clear answer. after reading : Aspects of the Higgs boson suggest that our universe is only “marginally ...
105 views

### Is Optical VLBI theoretically feasible? If not why not?

There are plenty of optical interferometers in use with baselines of up to maybe 1km. As far as I can find out, they all work by directly collecting the light at all the telescopes, using mirrors to ...
46 views

### How open is China in sharing data from the Chang'e 4 mission?

It's really good to see that man (well, machine) has gone back to the moon again. Chang'e 4 is studying potential mantle material from the lunar depths and will be conducting radio astronomy in ...
49 views

### Does the orbital decay of Triton affect Neptune's rotation?

Just a quick question regarding Neptune. Because Phobos is spiraling in towards Mars, Mars' rotation speeds up. Does the same thing happen with Neptune's rotation?
32 views

### Strength of core-envelope coupling in stars

For a star with a given Zero-Age Main Sequence (ZAMS) mass, as a function of metallicity how strongly is the star's core coupled to its envelope? I understand that the core-envelope boundary is only (...
47 views

### Expansion of Jupiter's perturbing effects on Kepler's third law treatment of orbits?

Does anyone know any good reference for how this was done? I remember reading once about how Jupiter's gravitation can be treated as a perturbation, but I cannot find it again now. I think they ...
30 views

### How much is usually deposited in a Mars regional dust storm?

Is there any indication of how much dust is deposited, especially in areas that are not open where wind might produce a cleaning event?
116 views

### Are they really sure this isn't an Airy disk? How was that ruled out?

Are they sure this is a spherical shell of gas, and not just an Airy pattern? Image from: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0906b/ I get 180 pixels from center to the first minimum, and 72 pixels ...
56 views

### Can Einstein-Rosen bridges - if they exist - link two points of which one lies outside of the observable universe of the other?

So there's stuff very far away that is, due to expansion, accelerating away faster than the speed of light, so fast that its light will never reach us even with infinite time - and we can't reach that ...