Questions tagged [astronomy]
Science dealing with the study of space and celestial bodies. Can pertain to the composition, origin, motion, behavior or physical aspects of bodies in space as well as the practical applications of such information (ie: navigation).
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Were auroras a rare occurrence before the 18th Century?
Wikipedia's page on auroras says:
A mid 19th-century British source says auroras were a rare occurrence before the 18th century. It quotes Halley as saying that before the aurora of 1716, no such ...
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Can the US flags on the Moon be seen by terrestrial telescopes?
Telescope manufacturer, Celestron, claims on their blog:
Can we directly see the flags on the Moon with an Earthbound telescope?
The answer is no. The largest of the American flags on the Moon is the ...
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Can we determine for sure if the Sun revolves around the Earth?
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the most recent (and final) rebbe of Chabad.
In 1975 he published a series of correspondence with a scientist about whether the Sun revolves around the Earth and ...
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Did the Qur'an predict an expanding universe 1300 years before Edwin Hubble?
There is a verse in the Qur'an that goes:
The heavens, We have built them with might. And verily, We are expanding it (51:47)
Some Islamic scholars say that this is an indication of the universe ...
user66632
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Do recent images from the JWST pose a major crisis for Big Bang cosmology?
In some recent publications, plasma physicist and alternative cosmology advocate Eric Lerner has made the claim that recent JWST images disprove the conventional ΛCDM model of cosmological inflation, ...
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Did Betelgeuse explode on August 7, 2022?
This widely watched live stream claims to show the Betelgeuse supernova in progress. But I can't find any information elsewhere
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Will Earth drift outside of the Goldilocks zone in the next half-billion years?
According to American actor Terrence Howard in his address at the Oxford Union Society:
Our planet is moving away from our sun at six inches a year [...] 15 centimeters a year our planet is pushing ...
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Did an asteroid impact in 2000 cause widespread power outages in Yukon, Canada?
A number of sources on the Internet claim that an asteroid impact in 2000 caused widespread power outages in Yukon, Canada. For example, according to the German-language Wikipedia page for the small ...
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Does Kasardevi, India, have an enormous geomagnetic field because of the Van Allen Belt?
An online magazine says this about Kasardevi:
What makes the place what it is, is its positioning on the earth’s Van Allen Belt. Simply put, the region surrounding the Kasar Devi Temple has an ...
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Is phosphine evidence of life on Venus?
This news article came out about evidence tied to the possibility of life on Venus. The crux of the evidence is the detection of phosphine. The claim is that we only know of two ways to make this ...
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Was Thales the first to show that the year contained 365 days?
The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, in his 2004 book A New History of Western Philosophy v. 1, Ancient Philosophy claims that Thales of Miletus, an ancient Greek astronomer, was
the first to show ...
user55893
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Does the asteroid 16 Psyche contain this much gold?
Some days ago, I read in several news sources [1][2][3] about an asteroid called 16 Psyche that is made up of precious metals such as gold and platinum. It's estimated worth is about $700 quintillion -...
user36020
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Was credit for the black hole image misattributed?
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) was used to create an image of Messier 87*, a supermassive black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy. This result has been heavily reported in the media leading up to its ...
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Does General Relativity bring "Cosmic Time," which is the same for all frames-of-reference?
In a recent podcast, the philosopher William Lane Craig said that while Special Relativity taught us to doubt whether any given clock is, or whether it could be, an absolute measure of time, General ...
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Was Kepler's sci-fi book "Somnium" used as evidence in his mother's witchcraft trial?
Widely considered the first sci-fi book, Somnium was written by astronomer Johannes Kepler around 1608 and was only published in 1634, after his death.
I first heard the claim that the book was used ...
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Is this animation showing the moon's librations a real capture or generated?
In one of the answers to an entertaining question on Physics.SE about "simple check for the global shape of the earth", there is a link to this awesome demonstration of the libration of the moon:
...
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Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?
This statement comes from a Joe Rogan show episode where he chats to Neil de Grasse Tyson. His statement is about the Gregorian calendar, and goes as follows:
"Point is, this was hard-earned, and ...
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Did the vedas accurately describe the planetary system like elliptical orbits and Sun being the centre?
There is a book called 108 eternal truths which claims many things which have been proved wrong on this site.
It makes the following claims about vedas describing the planetary system.
The Vedas are ...
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Can one estimate accurately the time until sunset using the width of one's fingers?
I've now heard from a friend and read about a claim online, which I find unlikely:
You can estimate the time until the sun sets by using your fingers. By extending your arm fully and placing your ...
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Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
According to the video 9 Shocking Facts from the Quran!
Iron is not natural to the Earth. It did not form on the Earth but came down to Earth from outer space. This may sound strange but it is true....
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Does the center of the Milky Way galaxy taste of raspberries? [closed]
An article (2009) from The Guardian claims that the center of the Milky Way tastes of raspberries:
Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the ...
user36356
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Did the Indian Mathematician Aryabhata state that the earth was round and calculate diameter of earth
Aryabhata was a genius mathematician, no doubt. But there is also the books about astronomy supposedly written by him. It is believed by Indians that he stated that earth was round. He belonged to 476 ...
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Does each doubling of CO2 cause a 2-4°C increase?
Professor Henrik Svensmark argues that cosmic rays have a strong influence on cloud formation and hence climate change. In 2016 he predicted global warming was over. He was recently the lead author of ...
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Was the 2017 solar eclipse the most-observed in history?
Several news sources, such as The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, have claimed that the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 is the "most-observed in history".
It was the most-observed ...
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Did the story of Columbus and the lunar eclipse take place?
In eclipse season, it’s bound to happen that someone will quote the story of Columbus fooling the settlers into believing that his god was upset with them and therefore eclipsed the moon.
But as ...
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Did Jupiter enter into the body of the constellation Virgo?
There is a claim spreading around and I'd like to know if this is correct from the astronomical side.
On November 20, 2016, an astronomical event begins that will last nine
and a half months...
...
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Did Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz claim the earth is flat?
According to various social media posts (eg one and two and google search shows many results with the meme), Ibn Baz said the following in 1993:
Transcript:
"The earth is flat. Whoever claims it ...
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Can Polaris be seen from the Australian tropics?
According to The Flat-Earth Conspiracy By Eric Dubay , Polaris can be seen, up to approximately 23.5 degrees South latitude.
That latitude is the Tropic of Capricorn which crosses through (the ...
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Are there too few Supernova Remnants to support the Milky Way being billions of years old?
In this Creation magazine reprint of a 1994 article titled Exploding stars point to a young universe, Young-Earth Creationist, Jonathan Sarfati argues that the scarcity of Supernova remnants (SNRs) ...
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Does the 'super-moon' have a measurable effect on probability and magnitude of earthquakes?
On the 14th of November 2016, the moon is both full, and is on its closest approach to Earth, causing its largest appearance size until 2033. Citation This large appearance gives it the 'super-moon' ...
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Did Babylonians in BCE used geometrical methods in mathematical astronomy to calculate planet positions and its motions?
A recent (2016) study, Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter’s position from the area under a time-velocity graph examines a cuneiform script and gives evidence that
that Babylonians in ...
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Do 26% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the Earth?
According to a 2014 NPR poll 26% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the Earth.
The survey of 2,200 people in the United States was conducted by the NSF in 2012 and released on Friday at an ...
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Has the CERN LHC Muon Detector caused mini singularities within Earths atmosphere?
"Something very interesting happened at CERN recently – they had an accident. The accident created a “rainbow” universe. What does this mean, exactly? CERN actually created a universe for 2.6 ...
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Was the vertical cannonshot related by Samuel Rowbotham ever performed?
A common claim in support of "Flat Earth" models is that a cannonball fired precisely vertically drops back upon the cannon, even back down the muzzle. One such claim appears here http://www....
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Does a lack of radiation shadows disprove the Big Bang Theory?
This article from Creation Magazine argues that:
If the big bang were true, the light from the fireball should cast
shadows in the foreground of all galaxy clusters.
It uses some 2006 findings ...
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Did the Mayans believe the Earth was flat?
Many places (e.g., here) state that the Mayans thought the Earth was flat.
At the same time, Mayan astronomical knowledge is impressive. They made accurate computations of the length of a solar year ...
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Was Sun's distance mentioned correctly in "Hanuman Chalisa", the 16 th century poem?
I found many sites stating that the Sun's distance was mentioned accurately in the "Hanuman Chalisa" hymn written in the 16th century.
Even Wikipedia has a mention of this.
juga sahasra jojana ...
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Do pulses of lunar waves traverse across the moon?
On the Fortean Times forum a user has posted links to a number of conspiracy theorist videos that show strange waves in video images of the Moon.
Latest conspiracy craze seems to be about "lunar ...
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Did Stephen Hawking say that blackholes don't exist?
According to this article and this one, the theory about black holes is all false.
A while ago, Indian astrophysicist Abhas Mitra studied and discovered that black holes are not what they were ...
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Is there any evidence of Planet X / Nibiru?
It's the first time I read an article on inquistr, so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but I just saw this article today titled: Has science just admitted Planet X / Nibiru exists?
Astronomers may ...
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Was the 30th of June the closest Venus and Jupiter have appeared since 2 B.C?
Browsing Facebook's trending section on the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter, I found several individuals claiming that this is the first time since 2 B.C that the two have gotten as close as ...
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Did we receive a signal from outer space in 1977?
This was recently posted on 9gag:
In 1977, we received a signal from outer space, which lasted 72 seconds. We still do not know how or whence it came.
Did we receive such a signal in 1977?
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Is this video by Carl Sagan?
I found a video a video on youtube :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugyrzr5Ds8o
Carl Segan on Hindu Civilization,
Can anyone confirm if this footage is really from Carl Sagan?
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Would life not exist on Earth if it was one kilometer closer to, or farther from, the sun?
A lot of my friends (especially creationist ones) tell me that if planet earth was one kilometer closer to the sun, it would heat up too much and life wouldn't exist. On the other hand, if planet ...
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Did astronauts leave footprints on the moon?
Our Young-Earth Creationist physics teacher stated that he does not believe that man actually stepped on the moon. That topic has been well covered here.
One of his arguments, however, was that ...
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Do 25 million meteors enter Earth's atmosphere each day?
It is claimed that about 25 million meteors enter Earth's atmosphere each day and most of them burn up and turn into dust.
About 25 million meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere every day (duck!). ...
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Is there a way to tell if the sun is rising or setting by looking at a picture and not knowing which coast it was taken at? [closed]
Looking through some pictures after watching "The Zero Theorem" it crossed my mind.
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Does the Earth revolve around the sun? [closed]
Scientists like Ptolemy and and Aristotle argue that the Earth is at the centre of the universe, and that the sun and stars are fix on spheres that rotate about the Earth.
However, other scientists ...
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Earth's distance from the sun affects nuclear medicine [closed]
Does the Earth's distance from the sun affect the efficacy of nuclear medicine?
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Could meteors have been been formed with lead, and mislead radiometric dating?
The age of the Earth has been determined by radiometric dating of meteorites, by seeing how much uranium has decayed into lead.
How do we know the meteor samples weren't formed with lead already in ...
