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1500 questions
17
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3 answers
Can large scientific telescopes observe the Moon without being damaged?
When I look at the full Moon through my 10cm telescope, it is so bright that it hurts. Can large scientific telescopes observe the moon at all? Does that require special protection equipment? Or dedicated telescopes (or none at all)?
In particular,…
j6t
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Why does the solar analemma have a strange shape on Jupiter?
I'm trying to look at what the solar analemma looks like from different planets, using Stellarium. To plot the analemma, I go into the ephemeris tab of the astronomical calculations window. From there, I show the position of the Sun every few solar…
usernumber
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17
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2 answers
Hydrogen burning vs Hydrogen fusing
Does the term "Hydrogen burning" mean the same as "Hydrogen fusing" in astronomy? If not, then what is the product of "Hydrogen burning"? Assume the product of "Hydrogen fusing" is helium.
Jack the Ranger
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17
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What are the current observational constraints on the existence of Nemesis?
Nemesis is a hypothetical companion to the Sun on a very eccentric, long-period orbit. The star supposedly returns every few tens of millions years, driving comets into the inner solar system and causing extinction events. Given our very stringent…
Guillochon
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17
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Why would the side of the moon that faces earth be as dark as the far side of the moon?
Somebody suggested that the side of the moon that always faces the earth is as dark as the far side of the moon, but is that really the case? Doesn’t earth-shine make the earth-facing side of the moon overall brighter? Or does the absence of a moon…
Constantthin
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17
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6 answers
Does the sun's rising/setting angle change every few months?
When I lived in Darwin, Australia, I noticed that the Sun set in a slightly different direction to the West. In the evenings, I used to sit on a couch and watch TV. There was a huge window to my right and the setting sun would always shine bright…
happybuddha
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17
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3 answers
Do celestial objects need to be big to have liquid water on their surfaces?
I mean no asteroid, planetoid that I am aware of has water on its surface. It is way more common to see ice in it. So I figured that the size of the celestial body has something to do with the cycle of water. Does this theory hold true? Do…
inquisitor
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17
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2 answers
Why does the Fourier transform of this CMB image have a hole in it?
The BBC's Desert telescope takes aim at ageing our Universe contains the image below of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope or ACT. It looks like this is plotted with a diverging colormap which makes sense since…
uhoh
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17
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Can the paper narrowing Solar System's barycentre to within 100m help find Planet Nine?
I've just read this recent news article, Astronomers Have Located The Centre of The Solar System to Within 100 Metres, reporting on a paper[1] that claims narrowing the Solar System barycentre to within 100 meters, just outside the sun, and I…
ksousa
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17
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Has Hawking Radiation Ever Been Observed?
I know Hawking Radiation has firm theoretical footing, but has a signal ever actually been observed? What observational research is being done to attempt to see this effect? Is it simply too tall an order (i.e. - too far away, too weak of a signal,…
astromax
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17
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5 answers
How to be an astrophysicist?
For a high-school students, what are the ways to become an astrophysicist?
What should he/she take in college?
What is the career path to become an astrophysicist?
Salazar
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17
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1 answer
Daily magnitude of Betelgeuse
I tried searching on the internet and could not find anything, so does anyone know if there's a website which tracks and shows Betelgeuse's magnitude daily? I just went out today and saw that it's now about the same brightness as Bellatrix.
hamayoun
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17
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Why don't they make an image of the black hole in the M33 galaxy?
Since we see the Triangulum galaxy M33 from a quite vertical position (contrary to our Milky Way and a bit the Andromeda galaxy) it should be easy to image the black hole in the center of it, shouldn't it? Why did they prefer to first image the…
user30007
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17
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3 answers
How often are there lunar eclipses on Jupiter
For the Earth-Moon system, the orbit of the Moon is at a slight incline compared to the plane of the ecliptic. This incline is enough for there to be eclipses roughly twice a year rather than every lunar month.
But Jupiter is much bigger, so its…
usernumber
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17
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4 answers
Which are stars and which are noise in this comet photo?
The Forbes news article NASA's Hubble Telescope Snaps Best Images Yet Of Our First Interstellar Comet shows the image below (which I have since annotated) of comet 2I/Borisov (C/2019 Q4) and links to this series of Hubble images:…
uhoh
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