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Rigorous Science

Posts tagged astronomy

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Q&A Predicting lunar eclipses with multiple moons

I realize that creating worlds with multiple moons and/or suns is risky, but I'm toying with an idea to see where it goes. So, a planet has 3 moons. One is large like ours, the second is about half...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Donny‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Donny‭

Question astronomy moons
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Q&A Feasibility and consequences: the cosmic dance of twins habitable moons

I am aware of being a newbie in the field I am asking my question... please be kind and explain what I did wrong if I make a mistake. The idea from where the problem bloom I love worldbuilding. W...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Sasugasm‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sasugasm‭

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Q&A What could make a planet more radioactive at night?

In the story of my video game, I want a group of colonists to land at dawn on an alien planet and have to terraform or build protective structures before sundown (several earth days). I want the d...

13 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by PStag‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by PStag‭

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Q&A How would seasons work on a moon orbiting a gas giant orbiting a star?

Let us assume a sufficiently earth-like moon, like Europa. It orbits a gas giant. The whole setup is within the star's goldilocks zone, so the moon is theoretically habitable. 'Day' is one rotatio...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Galastel‭

Question astronomy
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Q&A Is it possible for a planet with life to orbit around a white hole?

I have created a planet called Betiler. I don't want Betiler to be in a classic space system like a star and some planets. So I put it around a white hole called Phulom. In my world, wormhole doesn...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by P. Sauvage‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by P. Sauvage‭

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Q&A How to calculate hour angle of a moon?

I am trying to construct a standing stone calendar for my world Jasmi, located at latitude 53.8 degrees South. To do this, I need the hour angle of moonrise and moonset for my world. The problem is...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭

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Rigorous Science Could you turn the asteroid belt into one giant full spectrum interferometer?

For the purpose of this post, full spectrum means a non-trivial number of frequencies within a non-trivial band. So human eyes aren't full spectrum within the visual range (each cone is wide band, ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Imipak‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Imipak‭

Question astronomy asteroids
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Q&A Silly orbits - can an orbit be both stable and interplanetary?

In our story's universe, a solar system is hand-crafted by a deity with seven smallish bodies working in a way that I can only describe as Lagrangian Points, where all planets have the same orbital...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Liam George‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Liam George‭

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Q&A Could a spacefaring people preserve the idea that their world is the center of the universe?

Cosmology since Einstein makes it clear that it's not quite right to say one body in space "revolves around" another, right? Einstein wrote: "The two sentences, 'the sun is at rest and the earth mo...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by David Berreby‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by David Berreby‭

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Q&A Under what conditions might a planet orbiting a red dwarf star NOT be tidally locked?

From what I've read, planets orbiting red dwarf stars would most likely be tidally locked. Under what circumstances might this change? For example, if a planet had been the recipient of some kind o...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by paltrysum‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by paltrysum‭

Question astronomy planets
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Rigorous Science Replacing Jupiter with a brown dwarf?

This is a purely hypothetical question but I can't find a satisfactory answer to it. Let's say somehow Jupiter collects enough mass to be considered a brown dwarf. Let's assume Jupiter achieves a...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by tempestwing0101‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by tempestwing0101‭

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Q&A If the Milky Way contained a Quasar

If the central Milky Way contained a highly active, accreting quasar, with a steady luminosity of 100 trillion solar that is 27,000 lightyears away and became active 27,000 years ago (the emissions...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by user1582604‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by user1582604‭

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Q&A Covering up an extinction level event caused by an astronomical anomaly

I would like to know how possible/plausible it is that any space agency could spot an object larger than our sun, that doesn't reflect light, heading towards us in time to give us somewhere around ...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Cthulhu‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Cthulhu‭

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Q&A Detecting an astronomical anomaly

It's come to my attention that I asked my original question all kinds of wrong. I gave a bad example and I didn't give enough important story details. I've also realized I didn't even ask the quest...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Cthulhu‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Cthulhu‭

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Q&A What would day and night look like in a circumbinary system?

I've been thinking of using a binary model (a planet that rotates around two suns) for a possible story. The specific model is a S-type planetary system, where the planet orbits the the primary st...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by JAMS‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by JAMS‭

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Q&A How close could a binary pair be to our solar system without having already been detected?

Self-explanatory. After my previous question about a sextenary star system and a black hole, I decided to dial back to just two parent stars and a planet. How close could they be if we in the real ...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

Question astronomy stars
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Q&A Could a star half as hot as our sun maintain similar surface temperatures of planets orbiting it if it was half the distance?

I'm trying to build a world that is orbiting a red giant but sustains life similarly to the conditions of earth.Since red giants are about half the temperature (3000 kelvin) of our sun (6000 kelvin...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Lutro‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Lutro‭

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Q&A Worlds with different physics

So I have some worlds with different physics, and need some way to explain it. As with other sci-fi, it would seem best to find something plausible but may be extremely unlikely or have negligible ...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by EPICI‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by EPICI‭

Question astronomy physics
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Q&A How to create an annual celestial event for a world

Yesterday while Green, Andy and I were recording new episodes for the podcast we stumbled upon a bit of a problem that we need someone with physics/astronomy knowledge to help out with. We want to...

8 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by James‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by James‭

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Q&A A Possible Celestial Object Hidden from the Bright Side of a Tidally Locked Planet

So I decided to revive an old project which I was seeking assistance a year ago on the realism of the worldbuilding. WB links from the past: Reality of a tidally locked planet and Slowly Sculpting...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Yinnes‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Yinnes‭

Question astronomy
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Q&A How do I design the solar transit of a hot Jupiter?

BACKGROUND The world I'm designing currently has a gas giant of the type known as a hot Jupiter orbiting close to the sun and causing solar flares. I would like the inhabitants of my Earth-like wo...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Random‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Random‭

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Q&A How much gas can my planet retain in its atmosphere, based on its mass?

My planet Jasmi is 0.602 MEarth and, according to the wonderful u/shagomir's Planet Calculator Pro spreadsheet, I need to retain enough gas for just over 5 atm of pressure at sea level for a suitab...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭

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Q&A What atmospheric composition do I need to sustain Earth-like temperatures at my planet's orbital distance; how close should my asteroid belt be?

I need to heat my planet and I've decided that the two most plausible and controllable ways to do so are by increasing the amount of bombardment by meteoroids from a nearby asteroid belt, and by ti...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭

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Q&A What mass would it take to turn Jupiter into a star?

I'm writing a science fiction story based on: turning Jupiter into a star. colliding Callisto and/or Io into Ganymede to increase mass and changing the orbit to provide warmth, atmosphere, and r...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Richard Servatius‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Richard Servatius‭

Question astronomy physics
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Q&A Can a planet's axial tilt naturally change a meaningful amount in only 100 years from its current cycle?

Could a planet's axial tilt change a meaningful amount (what is needed to make inhospitable biomes even more inhospitable: hotter dry hot desert, colder north) over an extremely short period (~100 ...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hankrecords‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hankrecords‭

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Q&A Where to find equations to calculate tidal heating in a binary planet/planetesimal system?

I'm building a very small homeworld (0.602 M$_e$) with a very large moon (0.0711 M$_e$) that orbit each other at a barycenter about 7.12 planetary radii (1 R = 0.870 R$_e$) from the primary's cente...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Rúnatál Davino‭

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Q&A Likely warning time for extinction event asteroid

I'm looking for a science based answer based on current technology. Given that we do commit some small amount of resources and time to searching for stellar objects, with our current technology, ho...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by JBiggs‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by JBiggs‭

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Q&A How could the current model of the Solar System have been recognized and accepted earlier?

Many factors in history have contributed to society's taking a long time to accept the heliocentric (= the Earth orbits the Sun) model: the first that come to mind immediately are religion and, mor...

10 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hankrecords‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hankrecords‭

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Q&A Is this model possible? Fast axial precession + tidal locking

I'm working on a story set in a planet of permanent dusk/dawn, and with a dark side that never sees the light of sun. I know that a planet tidally locked to its star would (roughly) look like this,...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by MoholyNagy‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by MoholyNagy‭

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Q&A How can a small planetoid hold an atmosphere under artificial means?

Edit: Before I give up on this I wonder how could an advanced civilization create conditions on a small planetoid (Ceres sized?) to keep an Earth level breathable atmosphere? It seems like its impo...

8 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Len‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Len‭

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Q&A Can a habitable planet have mini-suns (i.e. solar satellites or glowing moons)?

Suns are stars. They are orbited by planets, and sometimes other stars. Planets are orbited by moons. Reasonably advanced civilizations may launch artificial satellites into orbits around their pla...

5 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Crissov‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Crissov‭

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Q&A To make a gas giant flammable

(Warning: do not try this at home-system) Preamble Hello humans, we need advice. Let's say we have just successfully defeated and killed a Horror From Beyond Reason who happened to be multiple t...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Hankrecords‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Hankrecords‭

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Q&A Habitable moon of a gas giant: working out the sizes and distances

I am attempting to create fictional, stable P-Type binary system, featuring a gas giant in a stable orbit, with a habitable Earth-like moon. "Is a Jupiter-sized planet plausible in a habitable zone...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by platypus-rising‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by platypus-rising‭

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Q&A Could a moon have its own satellites visible from the planet it orbits?

Say you have a planet and the planet has a moon: could the moon have visible satellites as well? I don't mean a gas giant planet, I mean something habitable by humanoids or humans. Will the moon'...

7 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Aeolanyira‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Aeolanyira‭

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Q&A How long would it take a civilization to see and understand a Dyson ring?

If a star had a Dyson ring of some kind around it, such that to the naked eye the star wouldn't dim at all, how long would it take a civilization to reasonably see and understand the Dyson swarm, a...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by SpaceMouse‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by SpaceMouse‭

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Q&A If I were to put a moon-mass object in Mars orbit, how long would it take to restart the dynamo effect in Mars' core?

Mars has an inactive mantle and core and thus little magnetosphere to speak of. Assume that a lunar mass object is placed in Mars orbit at 300,000 kilometers out (one light-second). Given the tidal...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by B.fox‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by B.fox‭

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Q&A Planet Titan, could this work?

So I'm guessing you guys know about the speculation that life exists on Titan. To me, this is very interesting but many point out that it would probably only be microbes and unicellular life becaus...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Amoeba‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Amoeba‭

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Q&A Earth as moon of Jupiter

I'm making five habitable planets the size of earth as moons for a gas giant the size of Jupiter. Then I want to add many more smaller moons, Our Jupiter has 67 moons, I want as many small moons...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by System‭

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Q&A Year marking astronomical event with extreme perihelion precession

For us earthlings, the concept of "year" came from the observation that the Sun reaches a minimum and a maximum span in the rise-set path in the sky. On a planet experiencing extreme perihelion p...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A What do Martians use for months and weeks?

Assume Mars has developed an indigenous civilization of its own, perhaps as seen in Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Much like Earth, Mars' years and days would be significant for any in...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by kingledion‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by kingledion‭

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Q&A Is a "long exposure"-like night sky possible?

Under what conditions would a planet's night sky look like this to the human eye? The angular speed of the stars relative to the planet would need to be high enough for the stars to blur into th...

12 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Orphevs‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Orphevs‭

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Q&A A planet with a diurnal cycle on only one hemisphere?

I need a habitable body with 64-hour days and nights... but only on one hemisphere. The other side is perpetually dark. Is such a thing possible? I'm picturing a tidally-locked moon orbiting a ga...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Jarrison_93‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Jarrison_93‭

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Q&A Why didn't we detect that exoplanet before?

In my world an alien creature claims to be from an earth-like planet orbiting a 500 light-years away solar analog star. It tells us that the planet has x mass, y diameter, z orbital period, that sp...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Lupetto‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Lupetto‭

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Q&A What are the circumstances in which swamps or everglades can have dramatic low and high tides?

I'm actually trying to create an alien ecosystem, so changing orbits, what's exhibiting tidal forces and the geography and such is welcome if needed. I also wonder how stable a setup with dramatic ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Tardigreat‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Tardigreat‭

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Q&A How would someone hide an asteroid in the void of space so only they could find it?

My story opens with an old man who arrives at his "personal" asteroid somewhere out in space. When he arrives, everything is powered down and he has to bring systems online before he can take his s...

20 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by dolst‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by dolst‭

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Q&A How to calculate precession cycle's duration?

I create a world having three moons. Since precession cycle is influenced by our moon, how do I calculate the duration of the cycle with three moons? Thanks

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Jimmy Gagnon‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Jimmy Gagnon‭

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Q&A How hard is it to shatter the moon?

After seeing this question, I wondered what weapon of choice (and, logically, the grand scale of energy amount) is needed to shatter the moon. Let's take our moon, the Moon, the natural satellite o...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Oleg Lobachev‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Oleg Lobachev‭

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Q&A Could more Earth-like planets exist in our Sun's "goldilocks" zone?

These planets would be similar in size to Earth. Mars and Venus don't need to exist in this scenario. So how many Earth-like worlds can be squeezed into the sun's "goldilocks" zone? Mars and Venu...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Bolek‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Bolek‭

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Q&A What would it feel like on the surface of a planet while it collides with another planet?

Let's say that something horrible has happened and a Mars-sized planet is knocked out of orbit and is hurtling towards an Earth-sized planet. How much time will they have? How will this affect the ...

10 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Danny Reagan‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Danny Reagan‭

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Q&A How to rapidly make an Earth-analog turn into a scorching wasteland?

First of all, I'd like to make a disclaimer, and that is that I'm in a brainstorming phase as of now so this question will be generally vague. This also means that any ideas you're willing to propo...

8 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Billy Joe Bob‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Billy Joe Bob‭