Where could life in the solar system be? Life in the solar system, if there is any, could be on the moons Europa, Titan, Enceladus, and the surface of Mars. We don’t know what life on other planets would need to survive. All we can say is what life on our planet needs to survive, […]
#1461 Where could life in the solar system be? Read More »
Why is the sun’s corona so hot? The corona of the sun is so much hotter than the surface of the sun because it is probably heated by waves that carry extra energy out from the sun. This is currently the most likely theory. The corona of the sun is the outer edge of the
#1455 Why is the sun’s corona so hot? Read More »
Why do stars ignite? Stars ignite when a cloud of gas and dust forms a big enough mass where the gravity creates enough pressure for nuclear fusion to start. Stars form out of masses of gas and dust that are floating around in the universe. These gases and dust slowly bump into each other and
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Why does time slow down as you go faster? Time slows down as we go faster because our perception of time gets distorted. This all comes down to the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant. Light, in a vacuum always travels at C, which is 299,792,458 m/s. The difficulty comes
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Why is the moon covered in dust? The fine layer of dust that the moon is covered with is called lunar regolith and it has been made by meteoroids and the solar wind. If you look at videos of the moon landings, the astronauts jump around, and every time they impact the surface of the
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How many atoms are there in the vacuum of space? Technically, in a true vacuum, there would be zero atoms, but it is impossible to make a completely true vacuum. There will always be some atoms. In intergalactic space, there are 0.3 atoms per cubic meter, on average. Obviously, some areas of space have an
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Why can’t we see the far side of the universe? We can’t see the other side of the universe because there hasn’t been enough time since the beginning of the universe for that light to reach us, and the universe is expanding faster than the light can travel. The first reason we can’t see the
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What is the conservation of energy? Conservation of energy is the principle behind the First Law of Thermodynamics. The Law of Conservation of Energy says that you can change the state of energy, but energy can never be created and energy can never be destroyed. Before we look at this question, I think we need
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How do the phases of the moon happen? The phases of the moon happen because only one side of the moon faces the Earth at any one time and as the moon rotates we can’t see the lit side. This question was surprisingly difficult for me to get my head around. For the longest time,
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What is escape velocity? Escape velocity is the minimum speed an object needs for it to be able to escape the gravitational pull of a celestial body. Everything in the universe has gravity. Even dark matter has gravity, which is how astronomers know it is there even though they can’t see it. The gravity of
#1358 What is escape velocity? Read More »
