Exotic Objects, Stars I’ve read that the gas ejected during supernova explosions glows at millions of degrees; I also have read that gas is tenuous. How would a million-degree gas feel physically? Would I vaporize while flying through such a cloud?
Milky Way What impact has the Kepler space telescope’s exoplanet discoveries had on the Drake equation?
Science As Earth wobbles due to precession, do the seasons change in regard to the months (i.e., 13,000 years from now, will June be winter for the Northern Hemisphere and December summer)?
Cosmology If the light from a galaxy traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth, does that mean the light left this galaxy when the universe was 500 million years old? Was the galaxy 13.3 billion light-years away from Earth then?
Science In my astronomy studies decades ago, we used the “Roche limit” to determine when a smaller body is too close to survive a larger object’s gravitational force. Do astronomers still use that term?
Exotic Objects Why do we see a flash instead of a constant signal from a millisecond pulsar, which spins 20-700 times per second? Is that not fast enough to maintain a steady beam of light?
Exotic Objects, Stars A recent study found that a type Ia supernova’s original star could be anywhere from 0.9 to 1.4 times our Sun’s mass. Astronomers use these blasts’ brightnesses to estimate distances, so are those measurements now incorrect?
Science Nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium powers stars, but fusion requires a lot of energy. Where does this energy come from?
Exoplanets, Planets, Solar System What would a uranian day and year be like? What path across the sky would the Sun follow?
