Question box: 2012 Astronomy

1. How long does it take for the magnetic poles to switch?

The time it takes for Earth's magnetic field to reverse polarity is approximately 700000 years. The best evidence of magnetic pole shifts are preserved in the geological record. By studying lava fields in places like Hawaii, scientists "guesstimate" that the most recent shift occurred 780,000 years ago. Beyond that, no one knows how long a shift takes -- could be thousands of years, could be overnight!

2. How expensive is an average satellite?

The average satellite price over the next decade will be $99 million, compared to $97 million in the past 10 years. The per-satellite launch price is predicted to remain flat, at $51 million

3. Why don’t voyager 1 and 2 get sucked into another planet’s orbit?

Following Voyager 2's closest approach to Neptune on August 25, 1989, the spacecraft flew southward, below the ecliptic plane and onto a course that will take it, too, to interstellar space.

The Voyager mission was designed to take advantage of a rare geometric arrangement of the outer planets in the late 1970s and the 1980s which allowed for a four-planet tour for a minimum of propellant and trip time. This layout of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which occurs about every 175 years, allows a spacecraft on a particular flight path to swing from one planet to the next without the need for large onboard propulsion systems. The flyby of each planet bends the spacecraft's flight path and increases its velocity enough to deliver it to the next destination. Using this "gravity assist" technique, first demonstrated with NASA's Mariner 10 Venus/Mercury mission in 1973-74, the flight time to Neptune was reduced from 30 years to 12.

4. Will Earth get sucked into a black hole one day?

no

5. How is a black hole born/made?

6. We think that a black hole can form when a very massive star collapses at the end of its lifetime

Black holes are thought to form from stars or other massive objects if and when they collapse from their own gravity to form an object whose density is infinite

7. What does a black hole do?

t is unknown what happens to the objects that are sucked into the black hole but it is thoerized that they end up in another dimension or region of space. Most scientists believe you go nowhere... you just become a highly compressed plasma that is forever trapped in the black hole.

In fact the gravity is so strong that even light can't escape.

8. Can we dispose our garbage by sending it to the sun? would this be a smart idea?

t costs millions of dollars to put even the smallest of payloads into orbit and much more to create a craft that can achieve escape velocity of earth's gravity. It's simply not cost effective.

9. How do you name your own star or have one?

Starting at $19.95, Name A Star Live is a wonderful, timeless gift that people everywhere give for any occasion. Everyone loves having a star named† after them.

Your star name will be registered in the Universal Star Catalog’s database featuring hundreds of thousands of stars numerically designated by the world renowned Smithsonian Astrophysical Institute. Each star is copyrighted with its precise stellar coordinates allowing the star recipient, friends, family or anyone – including future generations – to identify the star name and locate the star in the sky using a telescope.

10.Does the moon orbit the sun ? no, the moon orbits Earth

11.Why can’t we live on Jupiter or Saturn?

You can’t live on Jupiter because there is no ground (It's a gas giant). The air is not breathable because it has methane and ammonia which is deadly. The winds blow at 1,000 miles per hour. You can’t live there because the temperature is -300’F. There is no water or food on Jupiter. Jupiter and Saturn have far more severe radiation than we once thought -- so severe it almost disabled robotic space probes quickly flying by. And let's not forget frequent meteor impacts.

However colonies could orbit Jupiter, its moons or possible inhabit the moons directly. Resource could be culled from the rings and moons. There is a huge amount of particulate matter and energy to be harvested from it to provide the resources for colonization.

12.Are there really aliens? Do they really exist ?

If there's life, there's the potential that in some world orbiting some star in some galaxy, an intelligent space-faring race may be as inquisitive as we are, pondering their place in the cosmos and looking for other civilizations like their own.

Advanced beings, also known as aliens, do exist!

13.Are there any similarities to the Milky Way candy bar and the Milky Way galaxy?

The Milky Way bar was created in 1923 by Frank C. Mars and originally manufactured in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was the first commercially distributed filled chocolate bar. The name and taste was taken from a famed malted milk drink (milkshake) of the day – not the Earth’s galaxy, as many contend.

14.How/why is space a vacuum?

The fact that it doesn't have much in it.

Note that it's not actually a perfect vacuum. It's just really close.

Vacuum means region of empty space. It has the same origin of the word as evacuated and vacant.

15.What would happen to the Earth is the sun blew up/died? Would the human race survive?

The Earth will be devoured by the sun when the sun goes through its “RED GIANT” phase of its life

16.How cold is space?

Cold. 0 Kelvin is absolute zero. When all matter stops vibrating. It doesn’t exist, so 3 Kelvin is the coldest space due to the left over radiation from the big bang

It's that cold because there is very little matter in the vacuum of space and what is there is not moving with much energy. That's what "cold" is - lack of energy... or more specifically, lack of molecular motion.

17.Before the earth looked the way it is now, what did it look like before? I heard it was once covered in water, and then lava, …Is this true?

That’s a looonnngg answer

18.What is the nearest star? How close is it? When we look at the night sky would it be the biggest star we see, because of how close it is?

The next closest known star to the Earth is Proxima Centauri, red dwarf star approximately 4.2 light years from Earth

Faint red Proxima Centauri, at only 3100 K and 500 times less bright than the sun

19.How were humans made? How did monkeys evolve into humans?

Chimpanzee DNA is 97% similar to humans. Read Charles Darwin – it’s a long answer too

20.How is a planet born?

The planet appears to be building itself from surrounding dust and gas as it orbits its host star.

A University of Hawaii astronomer used the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to capture the first direct image of a planet forming around a st

21.Is it possible to live on one of Jupiter’s moons?

Perhaps. Astronomers are particularly interested in Europa, an icy moon. They think it might have a liquid-water sea under its frozen surface, and that there might be microbial life there. Still, we don't know for certain.

22.When will Earth collide with another galaxy?

No, it will be devoured by the sun first in about 5 billion years

23.When astronauts go into space, could they go close to a star? Or see a star up close?

It would take a very long time to get to the nearest star, 4.2 light years away

24.Is earth the only planet with liquid water?

Europa, Jupiters moon, is an icy moon, maybe has liquid water underneath the ice

25.Do other planets have rain?

It rains acid rain on Venus, and it snows water ice and dry ice on mars

26.Can a planet exist without a hot core or no core at all? No, it must have some type of core and gravitational force to hold itself together.

27.Can we grow trees on Mars? Will we be able to within my lifetime?

It could take 100000 years for trees to transform an icy blue Mars with a carbon dioxide ... won't see it within my life time though

28.Does the sun orbit? Yes it orbits the galaxy. It takes 230 million year to orbit the galaxy. Its called a galactic year, maybe heard the term in star trek or star wars.

29.Do you think there is life in our solar system?

Yes, some type of microbial life will be discovered… some day.

30.If our solar system is moving 134 miles per second, how come when some one leaves the earth, they don’t get left behind while it goes away?

Gravity and newton’s first law

31.Why doesn’t the north star move?

The North Star does not appear to move because it lies almost directly over the North Pole, on tip of the earth’s axis, on which the earth spins. its real name is Polaris. Polaris will not always be the North Star. Little by little the earth’s axis changes its direction. After many centuries, the North Pole will be pointing to the star Vega, which will then become our North Star

But the North Star does move. If you took its picture, you’d find that it makes its own little circle around the exact point of the north celestial pole every day. That’s because the North Star is really offset a little – by about three-quarters of a degree – from celestial north.

32.How far away is the north star from the sun?

430 light years

33.At night time are we able to see another galaxy?

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31 or as the Great Spiral Galaxy[1], is one of the most distant objects that the unaided human eye can see; it lies over 2.2 to 3 million light years away.[2] Locating it the first time is a little tricky, but once you find it, it's hard to ever lose it again.

Note: The best time for finding the Andromeda galaxy is between August through late March, so if you're experiencing difficulties locating it, bookmark this page and try again later. Also, be aware that this is easier to find from the northern hemisphere than from the southern hemisphere.

34.What happens when galaxies collide, do they implode and then explode?

A galaxy is made of roughly 100 billion stars. So you would think that in a head on collision between two galaxies, there would be countless collisions between those stars, right? The fact is that in such a collision, the probability of two stars colliding is almost 0

It can interact gravitationally, the galaxies can pull on the material in the other galaxies and disrupt their morphologies. There is also friction between the gas in the colliding galaxies, causing shock waves that can trigger some star formation in the galaxies.

35.Have any telescopes captured the end of a star’s life?

On March 28, 2011, NASA’s Swift satellite caught a flash of high-energy X-rays pouring in from deep space. Swift is designed to do this, and since its launch in 2004 has seen hundreds of such things, usually caused by stars exploding at the ends of their lives.

But this time was hardly "usual". It didn’t see a star exploding as a supernova, it saw a star literally getting torn apart as it fell too close to a black hole!

36.Do you think there are alternate universes?

Wormholes to other universes that exist in parallel ………….. read about string theory

37.Can I buy a planet? No

38.Do you think there is another livable planet in another galaxy?

Its possible – it’s so big

39.What is the temperature of Uranus? (your anus) and Saturn (bob)

Uranus is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 47 K (−284 °C)

Saturn = -250° C

40.Would my face freeze if I took off my helmet in space. Would I die instantly? Has this happened to anyone before? Why is space cold?

Their exposed veins and eyeballs soon bulge in what is clearly a disagreeable manner. The ill-fated adventurers rapidly swell like over-inflated balloons, ultimately bursting in a gruesome spray of blood

No it hasn’t happened and space is cold because it’s empty, no energy

41.What inhabitants exist on Andromeda?

Unknown

42.Will we reach the north star? No

43.If there’s an end to space, will we hit a force field?

Do not know

44.How big is a black hole?

A black hole with the mass of the Earth would be less than two centimeters (just 0.7 inches) across!!

When you read about black holes, you would have read about something called the event horizon. That is the point from which light can no longer escape from the black hole. Nobody knows as to what really happens inside the event horizon.

the black hole mass is equal to the dead massive  star mass its mass is nearly 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 KG

which is 1 with 31 zero.

some black holes may be 1 with 36 zero.

this huge mass is compressed in very small space.

45.Do we know when we are going to crash into the Andromeda Galaxy?

The Milky Way and Andromeda are heading toward each other at about 75 miles per second. They are so far away from each other that the big crash is a few billion years away

46.Can we ever make it to Neptune?

Since no spacecraft has ever landed on Neptune, we do not really know what are the conditions on its surface. The only thing we can tell for sure is that it is much darker there.

47.How many years does it take for the planets to all be aligned?

Though the planets will never come into precise alignment with the sun because their orbits are tilted, the next time that they will align as close as they can will be in 2854.

48.What’s beyond our universe? Does it end or go on forever?

it's the two major questions of life we may never find an answer to.

49.Where do you go when you go through a black hole? What happens?

Your body would be shredded apart into the smallest possible pieces. Spaghettification

50.The planets are pictured as moving in an oval, but do they move horizontally or vertically revolve? Horizontally, and spin counterclockwise, except Uranus.

51.If a planet is a sphere, why is the magnetic field different at the poles?

The north pole of the magnet is near the top of the planet, near the geographic north pole, and the south pole is near the geographic south pole. Magnetic field lines extend from these poles for tens of thousands of kilometers into space; this is the Earth’s magneto sphere.

52.What are the stages of the sun? super nova, white star, black star?

______________________________________________________________MARCH 30, 2012

53. why can we not see stars in day time? Or planets? You can see the moon and the sun, why can’t you see the stars?

2 things here - the brilliant daylight washes out smaller lights, and also in daylight, your pupils close so that you will not see dimmer objects.

54.What is the most common tide? Spring or neap?

They are equally common, they alternate as the moon revolves and the earth rotates

55.If space is so cold, why can the heat from the sun reach the Earth so fast? Wouldn’t the heat go away?

Our atmosphere filters the sunlight and keeps dangerous rays from reaching our planet. ... At night it prevents heat from escaping so it does not get too cold

56.What if we had more moons? 2 or 15 ? if we had more moons, our tides would be crazy. We would have higher spring tides if all moons lined up with the sun and the earth.

57. Why does the moon pull tides? How?

Tides are caused by a gravitational tug-of-war between the sun, moon, and earth. All objectsexert gravitational pull on each other. The closer they are, or the larger they are, the greater thepull. All of the planets exert some gravitational pull on the earth. However, the pull of the moonand sun are most noticeable because the moon is so close to us and the sun is so big

58.Has Olympus Mons ever erupted in our lifetime?

A dust avalanche was observed in a different location on Mars last year. Given that volcanic eruptions have been observed on Io, an eruption on Mars would be easy to see.

Olympus Mons is thought to have been active within the last 2 million years.

59.Why are planets round? Why can’t they be triangular or square?

A nebula is a concentrated area of gases and cosmic dust

These gases and dust are spread through space and when enough of it gathers it gains suitable gravity to establish a gravitational field. This clumping creates nebulas and started the process for star formation.

The next step in a stars birth would be the rotation of the nebula. As matter is drawn in and organized by the nebulas increasing gravitational field it start to gain angular momentum and start to rotate. This is just like how an ice skater spins faster when they pull in their arms. As the matter is pulled into the nebula’s center of mass, it spins faster making it easier for more matter to be pulled in. This process will happen until under the increasing gravity until the gases go under nuclear fusion and a star is born.

60. What does gibbous mean? (of the moon) Having the observable illuminated part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle

more than half, less than full

61.How much of an area does a supernova affect?

They are massive. Some are over 10 light years across

A supernova remnant is even bigger. Upwards of 50 million light years across.

62.How was the huge storm on Jupiter caused?

The Spot is, basically, a storm. It is a swirling gas mass of extremely cold temperatures

Most scientists hold that the Spot was caused simply by planetary changes in climate and atmosphere. Others claim that a planet or asteroid crashed into the planet, leaving a swirl of refuse in the area it fell into. According to this theory, a planet the size of Venus hit Jupiter and eventually added its metallic core to Jupiter's solid core mass. The disturbance caused by the collision, however, causes the clouds to swirl to this day

63.How is a star formed?

It takes billions of years for molecules of Hydrogen, floating around in space, to come together in sufficient mass to eventually coalesce into a protostar (the first stage), it usually takes another event, such as the shockwave from a supernova to give it the "nudge it requires", allowing gravity to come into play, for this to happen.

But that's only the beginning. Another 100,000 years or so later, when the protostar has gathered all the gas that it can, it becomes a very hot ball of gas called a T Tauri star. It still doesn't have enough mass, and hence pressure, to begin internal nuclear fusion, even though it can appear as bright as a regular star.

It's going to take gravity around another 100 million years to collapse the T Tauri to the point

where it's core can begin nuclear fusion. This is the point at which you can say that the star is 'born'.

64.What is the cycle of Haley’s comet?

2061. The comet cycle is 75-76 years and is due next in 2061. It last appeared in 1986 and should appear again in 2061

It has a 75-76 year cycle through our solar system Halley's Comet was last visible in 1986 during its trip away from the center of the solar system and is expected to be visible again in 2034 during its return towards the sun.

65.What is Haley’s comet made of?

Made of ice and dust and first described as a "dirty snowball" in 1950 by Harvard astronomer Fred Whipple, scientific studies during this apparition confirmed the composition of Halley's Comet.

Believed to have been formed in the cold remote outer regions of the solar system at the same time the solar nebula coalesced, comets are believed to contain primordial material 4 to 5 billion years old.

66.How is an atmosphere formed?

he Earth formed with the Sun 4.6 billion years ago. At this point, it was nothing more than a molten ball of rock surrounded by an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Because the Earth didn’t have a magnetic field to protect it yet, the intense solar wind from the young Sun blew this early atmosphere away.

As the Earth cooled enough to form a solid crust (4.4 billion years ago), it was covered with active volcanos. These volcanos spewed out gasses, like water vapor, carbon dioxide and ammonia. This early toxic atmosphere was nothing like the atmosphere we have today

Although life formed just a few hundred million years later, it wasn’t until the evolution of bacteria 3.3 billion years ago that really changed the early Earth atmosphere into the one we know today. During the period 2.7 to 2.2 billion years ago, these early bacteria – known as cyanobacteria – used energy from the Sun for photosynthesis, and release oxygen as a byproduct. They also sequestered carbon dioxide in organic molecules.

In just a few hundred million years, this bacteria completely changed the Earth’s atmosphere composition, bringing us to our current mixture of 21% oxygen and 78% nitroge

67.Can the moon ever explode from an asteroid?

Probably not going to happen. Biggest one in our solar system is Ceres and it won’t cross paths with the moon.

68.How often does a lunar eclipse occur?

There are two or three lunar eclipses of some kind (total or partial) that occur every eleven and a half months. Each of them is visible from about half the world.

There are also two or three solar eclipses of some kind (partial, annular, hybrid, or total) that occur every eleven and a half months. Each of them is visible from only a small area of the earth.

69.Can you blow bubbles in space?

Down on Earth, when we blow air into a mixture of soapy water, a bubble forms as the growing ‘bag’ of air formed from the soap film moves the surrounding air out of the way. In the vacuum of space, there’s no surrounding air to push back on the outside of the soap film, which is so weak that it would burst pretty much instantly. Inside a spacecraft, however, it’s perfectly possible to blow bubbles, even in the absence of gravity. They’ll still look like nice, neat spheres, and they’ll float pretty much the same: bubbles in space or on Earth are filled with the same air that surrounds them, so they’ll float regardless of whether there’s gravity or not. Space-based bubbles might stay put a bit longer, though, as the liquid soap in their membranes won’t tend to flow to the bottom, making the top of the bubble thinner and thinner.

70.How long does it take to blind your eyes when you stare at the sun?

Yes. 2 hours of looking at the sun would cause blindness for the rest of your life. I know a girl who looked at the sun for 42.5 seconds, and went blind for 5 days.

71.Why do we leave our stuff on the moon? How much stuff have we left on the moon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_man-made_objects_on_the_Moon

72.Would you fall in space if you weren’t on a planet?

Newtons first law

73.How deep is the moon’s regolith? Can we make regolith sandcastles?

1” to 15 km (9miles). It’s too fluffy to make a castle.

74.Have astronauts ever visited the dark side of the moon?

No, there have been no astronauts landing or walking on the far side of the moon. None have landed in darkness there, either. It is considered too dangerous.

75.If you poured water on the moon’s surface would it evaporate? yes

76.Will there always be 8 phases of the moon? No, there are in between ones throughout the month.

77.When will the next solar eclipse be?

A total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, August 21, 2017.

A partial solar eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including all of North America, northern South America, western Europe, and Africa.

78.what is the moon dust called? regolith

79.what is gravity?

Gravity is a force pulling together all matter (which is anything you can physically touch). The more matter, the more gravity, so things that have a lot of matter such as planets and moons and stars pull more strongly.

Mass is how we measure the amount of matter in something. The more massive something is, the more of a gravitational pull it exerts. As we walk on the surface of the Earth, it pulls on us, and we pull back. But since the Earth is so much more massive than we are, the pull from us is not strong enough to move the Earth, while the pull from the Earth can make us fall flat on our faces.

In addition to depending on the amount of mass, gravity also depends on how far you are from something. This is why we are stuck to the surface of the Earth instead of being pulled off into the Sun, which has many more times the gravity of the Earth.

80.how close can you get to the sun without being burned up?

Depends what you mean by burning up.

We can't remain at the distance we are now without getting our skin burnt up. It is only because of our ozone layer (and large quantities of high-SPF cream) that we can survive with our skin exposed to the Sun.

81.when is the moon’s next year? Every 28 earth days

82.how did scientists know that one space suit will keep out all of the moon’s radiation?

Let’s start with a design classic. In the 60s and 70s the A7L Apollo & Skylab was the spacesuit in which to be seen. Worn between '68 and '75 it was the seventh Apollo spacesuit designed by the pressure suit manufacturer ILC Dover.

Its predecessor (the A6L) was the first to have an integrated thermal cover layer. This protected the suit from scrapes and sheltered the astronaut from thermal solar radiation and micrometeoroids which could puncture the suit.

However, after the fire on Apollo 1 which killed all three crew members the suit had to have an upgrade. The fire proofing prompted the name change and this is the suit you see worn by NASA astronauts for the remainder of the Apollo mission as well as the three Skylab flights (the ones which were manned) and also the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

The A7L had six life support connections which were placed in parallel columns on the chest. The bottom four were used to convey oxygen. The one on the top right was an electrical headset connector and the top left was a cooling water connector which was bidirectional.

83.will we ever explore the dark side of the moon?

no

84.if you keep traveling around the world in the opposite direction as the Earth’s orbit, could your day keep getting longer? – no you would cross the time meridian line idk

A: In Barrow, the sun does not set between May 10 and August 2 each summer, and does not rise between November 18 and January 24 each winter. This is because the city is about 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southern limit of the area where the sun does not set on the summer solstice or rise on the winter solstice. Continuous day or night ranges from one day at the Arctic Circle to six months at the North Pole.

Although the sun is in the sky 24 hours a day in the summer, it's low in the sky and thus supplies less warmth than in places farther south. Sunbathers beware! July is Barrow's warmest month, but the average high temperature is only 45 degrees and the average low is 34 degrees.

85.what is the size of Uranus?

Uranus is the third largest planet in the solar system, after Jupiter and Saturn

86.are black holes really black? yes

87.if our summer vacations in august that when is it summer in the southern hemisp

here? When do they start school

88.How come planets that are near the sun don’t get burned?

Because they are solid and have a high melting point.

89.can we watch the big bang theory?

Yes, its on every night

90. what is dark matter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0_vWDfJwQ

91.does the dark side of the moon have anything to do with star wars?

no

92.why is the sky blue?

If you look at sunlight passing through a prism, you will find that white sunlight is actually composed of a rainbow of colors. As the sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the atmosphere selectively filters blue light using a process called `scattering'.

If that were true, there wouldn't be any blue skies in Kansas. And there are!Actually, the coloring in the sky that you observe is a result of light rays being scattered by air and anything in it. The rays of light with the longer wavelengths, such as reds and yellows, tend to travel more easily through the atmosphere, while the rays with the shorter wavelengths, like blues and indigos, tend to be dispersed more easily. These more easily dispersed shorter light rays are what give the sky its blue color.The color emitted by the refraction of gasses in the atmosphere is what causes the sky to be the color it appears. The protective ozone layer which is thicker in some places than it is in others, reflects blue when exposed to the suns radiation. So ozone gas expressed as O3 is

responsible in large part to the blue sky. The dust particles mentioned in the previous paragraph are responsible for the various hues and colors we see such as the red sunsets.

93.what are worm holes?

A wormhole is a pathway from one part of space and time to another more distant location. You might think of it as a shortcut through space that saves you from having to travel the normal distance between two points.

A worm hole is a mathematical solution to Einstein's relativistic equation for gravity in which two parts of space-time may be joined together. Unlike black holes, they have no singularities at least in the 'vacuum solution', but certain rotating 'Kerr-Nordstrom' black holes may serve the same worm hole-like function.

Many science fiction authors like to use them to allow spacecraft to travel quickly from place to place in our universe. But all of these ideas are based on 'pure math' descriptions of how they might work, and as you know, nature is often much messier than any idealistic, abstract rendering of it. There are no perfectly straight lines in the universe, and there are not likely to be wormholes either.

94.is there anything in the milky way besides our solar system?

yes, 100,000’s of solar systems.

95.what do aileens (aliens) try to do to you? Are they mean?

use your imagination

96.how does it take the Earth 24 hours to spin when it’s spinning really fast?

24,000 miles around Earth.

Takes 24 hours to rotate 1 time.

24,000 miles in 24 hours = 1000 mph

(0.5 Km/ sec)

That’s nothing!!!

Earth is going around Sun at

30 Km/ sec (6,660 mph)

Sun is going around galaxy center at

250 Km/sec (558,000 mph)

Galaxy is moving through space at

300 Km/sec. (667,000 mph)

Total speed is:

1,000 mph

+ 6,660 mph

+ 558,000 mph

+ 666,000 mph

1,231,660 mph

1.23 million miles/hour !!

97.what happens if the North star dies?

we wouldn’t know for 430 years (its 430 light years away)