If a planet could successfully orbit a black hole without being harmed, what would the sky look like from its surface?
I think this question is another example of how badly black holes are misunderstood. Suppose we replaced the Sun with a black hole of the same mass. It…
What is the wind speed on other planets in the solar system?
On Mercury, there is no wind because there is no atmosphere.👇 On Venus, however, there are very strong winds averaging 200 km/h, with peaks reaching 400 km/h👇. On…
Is Venus technically more habitable than Mars?
Venus is a hell world which has utterly annihilated everything we’ve ever sent there in minutes. The surface temperature can reach more than 800F (462C). The atmospheric pressure…
What will happen if a person lands on Pluto?
It has a solid surface and we actually, thanks to New Horizons, have mapped a large part of it. So it is actually possible to land there, unlike…
What is the scariest real picture of the ocean or anything in it?
1. Sitting on the edge of an underwater cliff 2. A fisherman holding a deep sea Wolf Eel 3. A whale graveyard lies silently as Anna Von Boetticher…
If a black hole the size of an atom appeared in the same room as me, what would happen?
You’d be torn apart. A black hole the size of even the smallest atom (around 0.03 nanometre radius) would have a mass of 2×10162×1016 kg. At a distance of, say,…
How does a human body decompose in space?
Unlike decomposition on Earth, governed by bacteria, insects, and a host of environmental factors, the process out there unfolds in an entirely alien way. Forget about putrefaction as…
Electricity can’t be stored, so when I turn on a light, the power station must immediately produce some extra electricity. How is this possible? From an engineering perspective, how are power stations designed to handle continually varying loads?
First of all, the electricity you use in your house doesn’t “Come from a power station”. It comes from a transformer located maybe 300 feet from your house….
Why is Hiroshima habitable now when the half life of uranium-235 is 700 million years?
“Half-life” means “half of the atoms have decayed after this time”. So a very long half-life means that the atoms rarely decay – meaning that it’s not actually…
What made the Rocky Mountains if they’re not on a plate boundary?
The Rocky Mountains are the biggest geological feature in North America, and they don’t behave like any other mountains. Buckle up. This is a pretty good geologic detective story, and…