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Questions tagged [solar-system]

Questions regarding the Sun and objects orbiting it.

3 votes
1 answer
162 views

How much mass did the Late Heavy Bombardment add to Mars?

How much mass was deposited on a terrestrial planet during the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB)? Is it possible to estimate a reasonable interval, specifically, for Mars? Could the mass addition to Mars ...
Michael_1812's user avatar
  • 1,494
8 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why did the dust between the planets disappear during the birth of the solar system?

I'm catching up on my childhood mistakes. One of them was the "nuclear flash", the enormous explosion when the sun ignited. Apparently, this did not happen as the ignition of the sun was a ...
Dominique's user avatar
  • 445
0 votes
0 answers
46 views

How to plot right ascension with time of the retrograde motion of mars? [closed]

Measure the right ascension, declination of mars and sun. plot the variation of right ascension with time.
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
379 views

How did the temperature of the solar system evolve?

As a child, I've read that stars ignite during a so-called "nuclear flash". I understood this as a very violent outburst of energy from the sun, causing all dust between the protoplanets to ...
Dominique's user avatar
  • 445
1 vote
0 answers
81 views

Calculating the absolute magnitude of a solar system body

I am trying to calculate the absolute magnitude of a solar system object, given its albedo, and assuming all of its luminosity comes from reflecting light from the sun. Using $L_{sun}$ = solar ...
CuriousCosmos's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

Solar system datasets for exoplanet analogs?

Are there data from the solar system available, that are about quantities we regularly investigate in exoplanet searches? The only collection I know of comes from this paper: "A Catalog of ...
Helen's user avatar
  • 399
2 votes
1 answer
289 views

The Poynting Robertson Effect

In the Poynting Robertson effect, it says in general, the Poynting Robertson effect is caused by the fact that objects like dust re-emit the light they absorb. Is that correct? Is this effect weak? ...
A Curious Mind 's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
150 views

How is a Planet's Moment of Inertia Measured Remotely?

In the July 2023 issue of Sky & Telescope there is an article titled Sights Set on Uranus. In that article the following statement is made: Since the 1930's we've suspected that Uranus and ...
GrapefruitIsAwesome's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
124 views

Have gas or dust or rock accumulated in our solar system on its 20 orbits around the Milky Way?

Also,does the absence of the accumulation of anything large such as rogue planets by the solar system suggest the Milky Way has been orderly and stable for billions of years?
user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
4k views

Does the Oort cloud have any large holes in it and if not does this mean nothing large has entered the solar system for a long time?

Would holes in the Oort cloud be a record of what has passed through it?
user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
558 views

What's the reason for the hollow region in Oort cloud?

Can someone please tell what caused the hollow space (pointed by yellow arrow) in the Oort Cloud? I understand that it is called cloud because the cluster of objects does not align with the major ...
Kevv Keka's user avatar
  • 161
3 votes
1 answer
86 views

How was this image of the faculae in the Occator crater obtained?

The picture in question (that I'm asking about) is at the bottom, of this post. Now, did they simply take a picture with reduced light intake? If so how much? 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 or less? Or did they ...
Sven _Andersson's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
684 views

Difference in results between JPL Horizons and cspice (rust-spice)

I am calculating the apparent planetary position of planets using the cspice library (I am specifically using rust-spice, which is a wrapper of cspice in Rust). when I calculate the same values in the ...
AviD1511's user avatar
  • 151
4 votes
1 answer
97 views

derivation of reduced magnitude of asteroids

I've noticed that there is this parameter called reduced absolute magnitude $V(\alpha)$ and it is defined as below according to the paper by Mahlke et al. 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020....
mysterium's user avatar
  • 811
4 votes
1 answer
383 views

Does the Oort Cloud lose mass with time?

Can blocks of ice escape from the Oort cloud and away from the solar system forever?
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
112 views

Motion of solar system around Milky Way

As our solar system performs its +-230 million year lap around the Milky Way, is the orientation of the ecliptic plane preserved independent of the center of our galaxy, or does the plane perserve its ...
DanO's user avatar
  • 21
15 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why is Mercury's orbit so unusual?

Mercury's orbit has the most eccentricity, 0.2, of all the planets. And this orbit is also the most inclined relative to Earth, 7 degrees. Edit: And to the invariable plane, it is inclined 6.35 ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 1,980
3 votes
3 answers
306 views

A solar system of solar systems

The moon orbits Earth, earth orbits Sol. It's true that Sol orbits the galactic center, but that's not what this question is about. Is it possible for a solar system like the Sol system, along with at ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 550
1 vote
1 answer
110 views

Does the Sun have different unique orbits around barycenters?

After reading this question and seeing its image I thought about this question I'm going to publish. Does the Sun have different unique orbits around the barycenter for its multiple planets? If yes, ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
157 views

Cooling the early earth

My son had this theory that the icy comets cooled the hot earth during the late heavy bombardment. What do we know about this cooling effect on the early evolution of the earth? He intended his theory ...
user442920's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
75 views

What secondary and tertiary conclusions can be drawn from the temperature characteristics of lunar soil sent by ISRO Chandrayaan 3?

ISRO Chandrayaan 3 released the following data today about the temperature characteristics of lunar soil. What secondary and tertiary conclusions can be drawn it? More specifically, what may be the ...
Ritesh Singh's user avatar
  • 1,002
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

What determines the edge/boundary of a star system?

According to Education.nationalgeographic, "A star system is a group of planets, meteors, or other objects that orbit a large star. While there are many star systems, including at least 200 ...
Hikerguy's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
136 views

Are the rotational axes of Earth and Mars parallel?

So I was stuck on a question involving the transformation of coordinates from geocentric to Mars-centric coordinates. The relative position of Mars and its orbital details are given. I thought that we ...
Aarush Mishra's user avatar

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