Why did NASA not see Atlas (the comet that is roughly 1/2 the size of the Sun that will come within 70 million miles of the Earth) before?
First, let’s get something out of the way: comet C/2019 Y4 (sometimes called ATLAS after the telescopes that found it) is not “half the size of the sun.” The comet’s…
Since Jupiter is a gas planet, why can’t comets collide with Jupiter and pass right through it?
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, with a diameter of approximately 143,000 kilometers and a mass 318 times that of Earth. As a gas giant,…
What is the largest structure discovered so far in the known universe?
The largest known structure in the Universe is called the ‘Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall‘, discovered in November 2013. This object is a galactic filament, a vast group of…
Could planets with 99% oxygen exist in space?
We actually already have one of those! Though it’s a moon, not a planet. And it only qualifies because of a loophole. This is Europa. It’s a moon…
If you poured water into space, would it freeze or evaporate first?
Why should it freeze? Contrary to popular misconception, space is not cold. Being a near-perfect vacuum, space itself has no temperature at all. If a given object is in space…
If we could travel 1 billion times faster than the speed of light, will we reach other galaxies in seconds, or what would happen?
Here’s the thing, If you travel to the next galaxy at the speed of light YOU will arrive instantaneously If you travelled FASTER than light .. if were…
Scientists say the universe is 14 billion years old. What if it has always been here and never had a beginning?
That was the thought a long time ago until this guy noticed something: George Lemaitre. Astronomer, mathematician, physicist and priest. He noticed something interesting. Objects were moving away…
Was Yuri Gargarin actually the first man in space or just the first man to go into space and return alive?
During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was not very forthcoming about their mistakes and failures. Before Colonel Gagarin’s flight, there were rumors of a…
What was the brightest stellar event ever recorded?
On April 17, in the year 1006, a new light suddenly appeared within what is now the constellation of Lupus. Observers from all over the world recorded the…
If the Earth were a grain of sand, then how big would the rest of the universe be in comparison?
Let’s make earth be a largish grain of sand, about 1.27 mm in diameter. This gives us a scale of 10^10 or ten billion to one. Fairly easy…