Which of the planets have an atmosphere? All of the planets in our solar system except for Merucry actually have an atmosphere, but they vary in thickness. We all obviously know that our planet has an atmosphere and what it is made of. It is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and the rest is […]
#1293 Which of the planets have an atmosphere? Read More »
How quickly would you die in the vacuum of space? It depends on the size of the person and the situation, but the average person would probably die after a couple of minutes unprotected in the vacuum of space. When we watch movies, we often see someone lose their helmet in space and then their
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How can astronomers detect planets? Astronomers can detect planets by seeing how they dim their stars, how they pull on their stars, and how they filter the light coming from their stars. So far, astronomers have detected 5,867 planets in 4,377 planetary systems. There are another 2,958 that haven’t been confirmed yet. That’ll bring the
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What is the Great Filter? The Great Filter is one of the possible explanations for why we might not find other intelligent life in the universe. It is a point at which no intelligent life can pass. You may have heard of the Fermi Paradox. I wrote an article about it before. Enrico Fermi was
#1269 What is the Great Filter? Read More »
What is the Boötes Void? The Boötes Void is an area of space 330 million light years across that only contains 60 galaxies. It is found in the constellation known as Boötes. It is sometimes called the “Great Nothing”. The Boötes Void was discovered by an astronomer called Robert Kirshner in 1981. He was looking
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How would a Dyson sphere work? A Dyson sphere would work by capturing the energy output from the sun and transmitting it to Earth. It would probably be a series of satellites. A Dyson sphere is obviously hypothetical because we don’t have the technology available to make it. However, that isn’t to say that we
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What is a pulsar? A pulsar is a neutron star that rotates extremely rapidly and releases pulses of radiation, hence their name. Neutron stars are formed when stars much larger than our sun (a minimum of eight times larger) run out of fuel to burn. All stars begin by burning hydrogen and turning it into
#1237 What is a pulsar? Read More »
Is space based solar power possible? Yes, space based solar power is certainly possible, but there are a lot of problems that need to be overcome first. The idea behind space based solar power is that they would have unimpeded sunlight for virtually 24 hours a day, every day. Solar power stations on Earth are
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How can the James Webb Space Telescope see the past? The James Webb Space Telescope cannot really see into the past, rather it can see the light that has taken billions of years to reach us. To understand this, we need to think about the speed of light, the vast distances in the universe, the
#1148 How can the James Webb Space Telescope see the past? Read More »
How do ultramassive black holes form? Ultramassive black holes can form when supermassive black holes collide. To make a supermassive black hole, we need to start with a regular black hole. Black holes can form when a very large star collapses in on itself. The star has to be very large, at least 25 times
#1106 How do ultramassive black holes form? Read More »
