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Questions tagged [interstellar]

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6 votes
1 answer
132 views

Does the galaxy look like a Web or a Tree?

Suppose we have a distance cutoff $r_0$. Let's say that any two stars in the galaxy with a relative distance below $r_0$ have a path between them. Would the path-connected Milky Way look like a Web in ...
urquiza's user avatar
  • 163
3 votes
0 answers
59 views

Are interstellar meteorites more common on the moon's polar regions?

Given that the rocks of the solar system mostly travel on the disc, is there any considerable probability that impacts on the moon coming straight up and down can be interstellar rocks? If axis-...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 4,268
18 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why isn't most hydrogen in the universe molecular (diatomic), instead of atomic (monoatomic)?

Similar questions have been asked before; but, why? Is the monoatomic hydrogen left over from the Big Bang? And hasn't had the opportunity to collide with other hydrogen atoms yet? Or are hydrogen ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
  • 5,307
2 votes
2 answers
120 views

Is it possible to use a laser to propel a spaceship? [closed]

Reference: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1968BAN....19..421H It would be necessary to aim a laser to the target star. How would the density of the laser compare with the interstellar radiation?
Bingohank's user avatar
  • 455
1 vote
1 answer
184 views

Is there any planet or black hole where we could experience time dilation like in the movie Interstellar?

As we seen in Interstellar movie Copper goes to a planet where he experienced time dilation which was 1 hour of staying on that planet will cost the 7 years on the earth. So, is there any planet or ...
Kushal Sharma's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
194 views

Why black holes look black to us?

Why black holes look black to us? The question might sound weird but my head stuck in it. As we know objects that fall into the black holes seem to remain unchanged in its event horizon due to the ...
Sazzad Hissain Khan's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
104 views

If Planet Nine is a primordial black hole could it explain 'Oumuamua and Borisov's orbits without them being interstellar?

There has been an increasing amount of interest in the possibility of primordial black holes and that Planet Nine may be one itself. Planet Nine is a potential explanation for the orbital ...
Matthew Armstrong's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
135 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 ...
alamar's user avatar
  • 145
2 votes
2 answers
193 views

What makes scientists already so certain that Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) is a comet and not an asteroid?

US Naval Research Laboratory scientist Dr. Karl Battams has recently tweeted Unlike 'Oumuamua, whose asteroid-or-comet nature still gets debated, this one is definitely a comet. If it is ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
1 vote
0 answers
53 views

Hypothetical: Is the interstellar wormhole too close to the black hole? [closed]

Most reasonings about hypothetical wormholes say, that you need an extreme amount of energy to keep them open. Given that, isn’t the worm hole too close to the black hole gargantua? The gravity ...
Arbirk's user avatar
  • 11
4 votes
3 answers
677 views

What would you find within a void?

I'm aware that voids are relatively empty regions of the universe, but just how empty can they be? Wikipedia states that voids have 'few or no' galaxies, but I can't find much else. To make my ...
guest's user avatar
  • 143
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

What fraction of starlight, seen from Earth, is actually reflected light?

Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy. Some of the starlight from outside the ...
StarlightDown's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
249 views

How do we know about the origin of ʻOumuamua?

How do we know that ʻOumuamua is interstellar and not otherwise? I fail to understand the logic that the extraordinary speed of the object proves it to be of interstellar origin, and that our sun's ...
asabhish's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
349 views

Our Solar System’s interstellar movement in relation to the Alpha Centauri System

Our solar system is moving at approx. 52,000 mph, so where is the Alpha Centauri system, which is assumed to be also moving through interstellar space at a similar velocity since it is part of our ...
Geoffrey Howe's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
410 views

How did astronomers determine the path of 'Oumuamua so quickly?

The interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua was discovered on October 19, 2017. Once discovered, less than a month's worth of precovery observations were found on various sky surveys. By mid-November, ...
jkade's user avatar
  • 185

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