Rotating Question Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer

Previously answered questions by Jagadheep D. Pandian

(in order of times viewed)

  1. How many stars are there in our Galaxy (Milky Way)?
  2. How do you measure the distance between Earth and the Sun?
  3. Why do planets rotate?
  4. How does the location of sunrise and sunset change throughout the year?
  5. What is at the end of the Universe?
  6. How do astronauts take baths and use restrooms in space?
  7. How are light and heavy elements formed?
  8. Does the Sun have a scientific name?
  9. What will happen to life on Earth when the Sun becomes a red giant?
  10. How critical is the Earth-Sun distance in maintaining our average temperatures on Earth?
  11. Do black holes die? If so how?
  12. What kind of rock is the moon made of?
  13. What is a singularity?
  14. Where did the Universe come from?
  15. Why do different stars appear with seasons?
  16. Why is the Universe flat and not spherical?
  17. How are galaxies formed?
  18. What are the "dog days of summer"?
  19. Will the Sun become a black hole one day?
  20. What happens to a substance if its speed is more than the speed of light?
  21. How do astronomers measure the brightness of stars?
  22. What are black holes made of?
  23. Why doesn't the earliest sunset occur on the shortest day of the year?
  24. What is the mass of the Universe?
  25. Why isn't the summer solstice the hottest day of the year?
  26. What is the size of a black hole?
  27. Why do we see stars?
  28. If the Earth's rotation period is less than 24 hours, why don't our clocks fall out of sync with the Sun?
  29. How long does the supernova stage of a star last?
  30. Which constellation does our Sun belong to?
  31. If light has no mass, then what draws it into a black hole?
  32. What would happen if the Moon fell out of its orbit around Earth?
  33. Why can't we see Venus at night when it is an inner planet?
  34. How are black holes discovered?
  35. Has there been an experiment that measured speed faster than the speed of light in vacuum?
  36. Why does the location of sunrise change?
  37. Why does the Earth only see one side of the Moon?
  38. Could the Universe have expanded faster than the speed of light at the Big Bang?
  39. If a white dwarf is a "dead" star, why is it so hot?
  40. Is it possible to see the full Moon and the Sun simultaneously in high northern latitudes when the Sun doesn't set?
  41. Why don't people walk upside-down on the bottom of the Earth?
  42. Are all stars the same?
  43. Why are most months 30 or 31 days long?
  44. Is there a simple formula to calculate solar eclipse timings from any position on Earth?
  45. What is the significance of the second focus of elliptical orbits of planets in our Solar System?
  46. Is time travel possible using merging black holes?
  47. Why do constellations look the same after several years even though all the stars are moving?
  48. Is it true that the Sun burns off a billion tons of gas every 5 seconds?
  49. What kind of eyepieces do I need to look at planets?
  50. Will winter and summer constellations change due to abnormal warmth or cold on Earth?
  51. Will the seasons change due to precession?
  52. Why is the time between two successive full moons different from the lunar synodic month?
  53. Why do the explosions of Type Ia supernovae have a more predictable spectrum than those of regular Type II supernovae?
  54. How will a change in the speed of light affect the evolution of the Universe?
  55. What is the farthest Northern Latitude in which the Magellanic Clouds can be seen?
  56. What will happen to the Milky Way in the future?
  57. Are there any dark stars or dark galaxies made of dark matter?
  58. What calculations go into predicting eclipses?
  59. Is there any possibility that the Solar System or the Universe is in a black hole?
  60. How big was the Sun when it first "fired up"?
  61. How is it proved that the Universe is expanding?
  62. What is a Cepheid variable?
  63. How do planets capture satellites?
  64. Are planetary nebulae the result of supernovae?
  65. Why are stars of different masses?
  66. Can you give me advice on buying a telescope?
  67. Why does one side of Mars look more catastrophic than the other?
  68. Can a black hole come back to the visual universe through a "little bang"?
  69. Is it possible for amateurs to do optical interferometry?
  70. What is meant by "stopping down a telescope"?
  71. Is it possible to build a cheap device to measure declination?
  72. Why is the Cosmic Microwave Background not absorbed by interstellar hydrogen?
  73. Will I be able to see the shadow of the Moon streaking towards me in a total solar eclipse?
  74. How fast do particles travel in space?
  75. How much power is contained in a beam of light?
  76. How long is twilight on the Moon?
  77. Why doesn't SETI concentrate its observations to the nearby stars and the solar systems that we are discovering?
  78. Will the next generation telescope OWL be able to detect an Earth like extrasolar planet?
  79. What are "curled" dimensions?
  80. Can you tell me the characteristics of W, R, N and S type stars?
  81. Wouldn't the vast distances of space distort SETI signals into unintelligeble forms?
  82. Will the diameter of a cluster of galaxies change with redshift?
  83. Why don't all neutron stars become pulsars?
  84. How are astronauts trained for weightlessness?
  85. What are the largest radio wavelengths observed from radio sources in the sky?
  86. What is the relationship between the width of a star trail on a photo and the star's intensity?

URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/authorlist.php?number=8
This page has been accessed 10214 times since January 14, 2013.
Last modified: November 19, 2007 11:28:35 AM

Legal questions? See our copyright, disclaimer and privacy policy.
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.

Warning: Your browser is misbehaving! This page might look ugly. (Details)