Questions tagged [fundamental-astronomy]
Questions involving reference frames, time scales, and how they are determined. Not for general Astronomy 101 questions.
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How would the night sky look from inside a globular cluster?
When the weather is clear, we can look at the stars. And we normally would see several thousands of them, they all being more than a $\textrm{pc}$ away from us.
Now, there are globular clusters, ...
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Can a magnetic field of an object be stronger than its gravity?
Can a planet, star or otherwise have a magnetic field that is stronger or have more range than its gravity?
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What would the night sky look like if the Milky Way were the only galaxy in the universe?
I'm curious to know what the sky would look like without any other galaxies out there. How much do other galaxies factor into the stars we see? Does the Milky Way account for most of them? Would the ...
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Open problems in astronomy that an amateur (with a PhD in some other field) would have a chance of solving?
What are some open problems in astronomy that an amateur would have a chance of solving? Suppose the amateur has a PhD in some other field, owns a basic telescope, a set of filters, diffraction ...
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How to discover Neptune from the Uranus orbit (by computer simulation)
I would like to demonstrate the existence of another planet (Neptune) by studying the discrepancy between the observation of the Uranus orbit and the mathematical prediction, this work was made from ...
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Was the progress of astronomy in the 1800s surprisingly slow, and if so why? [closed]
The 1800's was a century of fantastic scientific discoveries in chemistry, geology, biology, engineering and so on. Is it correct to say that astronomy did not keep up with this development? And if ...
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Are there more stars than all the words ever spoken by humans?
A while ago I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson comparing the number of stars in the universe with the number of words spoken by all of humankind, ever since.
I realize both of these numbers are not strictly ...
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How can I contribute to the scientific community using my telescope?
I've been using my Meade 90 ETX for a few years trying to become a better astronomer and am familiar enough with the basics to navigate my way around. I was wondering in what way an amateur astronomer ...
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Why didn't Johannes Kepler use data about more planets?
In Astronomia Nova (1609) Johannes Kepler used observations of Mars in order to refute circular orbits. Throughout Astronomia Nova he hardly even mentions other celestial objects than Mars, Earth and ...
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Why you use log to measure metallicity in galaxies?
For example, I saw the next expression for matallicity in a paper: $\log(O/H) + 12$.
I understand O/H is the O(Oxygen) to H(Hydrogen) ratio but why is there the number 12? And why the logarithm?
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Calculation of right ascension and declination
I am confused about this problem:
If I see an object from Mount Teide (longitude is 16"30'E and latitude is 28"18'N) that passes the meridian (azimuth=0) at 5h (am) UTC, and I also know that the ...
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How many astronomers are there in the world today?
How many now living individuals have a PhD in astrophysics, or by some other definition can be reasonably classified as astronomers? I think Richard Feynman once said that only one in a million is an ...
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Planetary reference systems and time
I am researching into how coordinate systems of solar systems objects are created by reading some of the reports written by the Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements (e.g. ...
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Astronomical databases for machine learning?
I was reading this question about open problems in astronomy. The bounty-receiving answer says that
I have just left the field where some colleagues are trying to develop some software to use ...
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Astronomical ABCD...!
Today, I thought to make a list of Astronomical objects, A to Z.
It goes as follows :
A - Asteroid
B - Black Hole
C - Comet
D - Dwarf Planet
E - Elliptical Galaxy
F - Falling Star
G - Globular ...
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