Questions tagged [astronomy]
The science dealing with objects and phenomena located beyond Earth. In particular, this applies to observations and data. At its core, astronomy is the physically informed cataloging and classifying of the contents of the universe in order to better understand what is out there.
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Magnetic tubes or magnetic field lines around a black hole?
A picture is worth thousand words:
Magnetic field lines, unlike magnetic tubes, have a continuous distribution. Recent pictures of black hole magnetic structure show tubes. Is there a model that ...
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Which of the blocked radiation windows will (mostly) open if one where to observe from the surface of Mars, instead of the Earth?
Earth’s atmosphere is composed of about 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, and 0.1 percent other gases. Trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and neon are some ...
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Galaxy harassment; flyby encounter (tidal interaction)
This following image is from the paper https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1978AJ.....83..219R#page=4
It shows the path of a flyby encounter of NGC 3627 (M66) with the galaxy NGC 3628 (the Hamburger galaxy)...
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How can I see Orion's Belt in winter and summer?
How can the 23 degree tilt of the Earth enable someone in Argentina to see the same constellation (Orion's Belt) in winter as someone in Britain in summer?
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The astonomer's method of color differencing as applied to proving Einsteinian relativity during a total solar eclipse
I'm looking to see if the astonomers' method of color differencing was ever applied to the stars near the Sun during a total solar eclipse, for example, to demonstrate Einsteinian relativity visually ...
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Speed at which the Moon moves past a point on Earth's surface?
I'm trying to calculate how fast a point on the surface of the Moon is moving past a point on the surface of the Earth (I assume a point on the equator of each for simplicity).
I know the Earth is ...
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Why does the peak of quasar distribution move from near to far with increasing magnitude?
I made a little tool to examine the distribution of quasars in various catalogs, including SDSS DR16Q:
If you check the +/- box, and move the magnitude slider from low (-20) to high (-30), the peak of ...
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Clarification regarding the meaning of Universal Time UT1
I've been reading the book "From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency" by James Jespersen and Jane Fitz-Randolph which is available at https://www.nist.gov/system/...
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Authoritative Reference for Astronomical Constants
Is there a reference that is considered authoritative when it comes to astronomical data, especially for the planets and their satellites and the Sun?
I've been using the most recent CRC Handbook of ...
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What creates the Global Dipole Magnetic Field in the Sun?
I understand that the Sun undergoes convection and with rotation, the convective cells have a helical motion because of the Coriolis Force. My confusion comes from the fact that via the right-hand ...
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Luminosity and absolute magnitude relationship
Context : an exercise gives the temperature, mass, distance and apparent magnitude of Sirius B and asks to calculate its density.
One key step of the calculation is to get the luminosity from the ...
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Is it possible, by monitoring the brightness of stars, to find a “copy of the Earth + Moon” near them?
More than a dozen Earth-like planets have been discovered around nearby stars based on observations of changes in the brightness of their sun as they pass across its disk (transit events). If an Earth-...
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How is a complete image of a distant object formed with an obstruction in the line of sight? [duplicate]
Can anyone please link to or sketch a diagram demonstrating how a complete (and clear) image can be formed of a distant celestial object with a central obstruction blocking part of the line of sight ...
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Why does a total solar eclipse happen every 18 Months?
What is the math involved in calculating how often a total solar eclipse happens. Can you predict it by just looking at the period of the moon around the earth and the period of the earth around the ...
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The expectation value of intersecting particles
If I have a light beam (a straight line)
it goes through a box of dust, which has travelling length $l$, dust molecule cross section $\sigma$, dust number density $n$.
how to calculate the expectation ...
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