Ask the Astronomer – The Top-100 most frequently asked questions at Ask the Astronomer from 1995 to 2015! Over 10 million requests for these FAQs. What is Dark Matter? Will Betelgeuse become a supernova? Can a planet ever explode? And many others!!! ($9.26; 10 tables; 156 pages) Purchase book at Amazon.com
This all-text E-book contains the Top-100 of these FAQs with answers updated to 2023. At a price of only $3.00, you will likely find answers to many of your own questions about astronomy, space exploration and space travel within its 100,000-words. If the response is good for this E-book I will look forward to doing annual updates to it every Fall, so please support this public education effort if you can!
Earth
- What would happen if a large object hit the Earth?
- Are Earth’s magnetic poles about to flip?
- What is the distance from the Sun to Earth for each month of the year?
- How many meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere every day?
- Did Earth rotate faster in the past?
- By how much does the axis of Earth shift when it wobbles?
- How long will Earth remain habitable?
- Did Earth rotate faster in the past?
- Why don’t auroras happen near the equator?
Moon
- What are the names of the Full Moons?
- Why does the moon rise 50 minutes later each day?
- Which way does the Moon go around the Earth?
- Is the Full Moon seen the same everywhere on the same date?
- What would have happened if the Earth did not have the Moon?
- Why are there no ocean tides at the equator?
- What causes the Moon’s synchronous rotation?
- How high can you jump on the Moon?
- What is a Proxigean Spring Tide??
- When will the Proxigean Tides arrive between 1999-2020??
- Is there a place on the Earth where you will never see the Moon??
- Why do some lunar craters have rays?
- When will the next Blue Moons happen?
Sun
- How much energy does the Sun produce in one hour?
- What effects do sunspots have on the Earth?
- Why doesn’t the Sun blow up?
- What is the distance from the Sun to the Earth for each month of the year?
- How long does it take light to get out from the inside of the Sun?
- Has the loss of mass by the Sun over the last 4 billion years been enough to affect planetary orbits?
- How was the Sun formed?
Solar System
- Why does Venus rotate backwards?
- How long would a trip to Mars take?
- What is the typical temperature on Mars?
- How was the solar system formed?
- Why don’t Mercury and Venus have moons?
- When will we no longer have total solar eclipses?
Stars
- How long would it take to get to the nearest star?
- What is a red giant star?
- How do astronomers know the size and distances of stars?
- Can you see stars from the bottom of a well?
- What do stars look like up close?
- What exactly happens to a star about to go supernova?
- What is the relationship between a star’s color and its temperature?
- How big is Proxima Centauri?
- Why aren’t there any green stars?
- Is there a minimum and a maximum size to stars and black holes?
- What would happen if two stars collide?
Black Holes
- How can you use black holes for time travel?
- What happens to matter when it falls into a black hole?
- If nothing can escape a black hole, why do they still emit x-rays?
- Will the black hole at the center of the Milky Way eventually eat all the matter in our galaxy?
The Universe
- What is a galaxy?
- How do we know the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy?
- If the Milky Way were the size of a penny, how big would the rest of the universe be?
- Do you believe in the Big Bang theory, or Creation?
- Can we see individual stars that are outside our galaxy?
- Where in the universe did the Big Bang happen?
- Exactly how many stars are in the Milky Way ?
- What is the history of a single proton from the Big Bang to the present?
- What facts disprove the Big Bang theory?
- How can an infinite universe have a beginning in time?
Space Travel
Check out my two books on interstellar and interplanetary travel from an astronomer’s point-of-view! They cover destinations, what we will do when we get there and, of course, ideas about propulsion and hazards along the way.
- How long will it take to get to each of the planets?
- What material is used to make spacecraft?
- How long would it take to get to the nearest star?
- How fast does a rocket have to travel to leave the atmosphere?
- At what speed does the interstellar medium become lethal to high speed flight?
- What happens when a human is exposed to a vacuum?
Gravity and Space
- What exactly is a sub-atomic particles structure like?
- Do we really know how gravity and magnetism operate?
- Is anti-gravity possible?
- Is the empty space inside particles the same kind as there is inside atoms?
- Do other dimensions exist?
- Does the physical vacuum produce a pressure that can be measured?
- What prevents densities higher than the Planck Limit from happening?
- How does a magnetic field differ from a gravitational field?
- Can gravity be simulated using electromagnetic forces?
- How are electromagnetic fields and space-time related, and can electromagnetic fields exert a force on space -time?
- If the force of gravity were reduced 50 percent, how would this change stars and the universe?
- How much of a charge excess would be needed in the universe to produce detectable non-gravitational motions?
- Does anyone really understand general relativity well enough to have an intuitive grasp of the universe?
- How do you really know that general relativity stops working inside black holes?
- If nothing can travel faster than light, why does gravity take affect instantly?
- Are we gravitationally affected by where an object is now, or where it was when the light we see started its journey to us?
- Can gravity alter the speed of light?
- When light falls in a gravitational well, does its speed exceed 300,000 km/sec?
- Is light conducted by space, or does it travel through it?
- Can you go faster than the speed of light by altering space in some way?
- What are the ’10 dimensions’ that physicists are always talking about?
- What is the simplest evidence that there are more than 4 dimensions?
- Where does the energy come from that produces virtual particles?
- Is there a ‘smallest possible size’ to space beyond which it cannot be further divided?
- What is a space anomaly?
- What binary star is producing gravity waves?
- Are there any other astronomical systems where general relativity can be tested other than the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar?
- Don’t objects steadily evaporate over time by emitting gravity waves?
- What does the equation look like that shows how gravitational radiation is lost from the binary pulsar system?
- Does the star DI Herculis prove that general relativity is breaking down?
- Do we really know how gravity and magnetism operate?
- Does the physical vacuum produce a pressure that can be measured?
- How do you reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity?
- Are there alternatives to General Relativity?
Everything Else!
- What are the pros and cons of a career in astronomy?
- How do you actually use Einstein’s E = mc-squared?
- Can you date the crucifixion of Jesus Christ using astronomy?
- What is ‘quantum foam’?
- How do you compute the angular distance between two stars from their coordinates?
- Does time stop at Absolute Zero?
- What are some astronomical events that affected history?
- What is Grand Unification Theory?