I firmly believe that the original moon landing happened and they’re well documented. I have a co-worker who firmly believes we simply didn’t have the technology at the time and it was a movie set. We have gone around a few times with arguments, things like the photos of the boots don’t match the prints on the moon, the flag waving, lack of stars in the photographs etc. I’ve given explanations of everything he argues but, still he says NOPE! Is there any way to prove this happened to a near flat earther?

Hi all, I'm struggling to comprehend how to find the parallax angle from a graaph of RA vs Dec values in mas, I'm not sure how to find the parallax without using the formula d/pc = (parallax/arcsec)^-1 in one of my exercise books I'm being asked the following:

This question concerns analysis of astrometric and photometric data such as that returned by the Gaia spacecraft

Figure 1 presents a set of (simulated) data spanning 5 years, shown by the red points, illustrating the apparent motion of a star on the plane of the sky. The blue line is a fit to the combined proper motion and annual parallax. Figure 2 represents the same data, but with the star’s proper motion subtracted. In this case, the blue line is a fit to the parallax alone. The x-axis is parallel to the plane of the Earth’s orbit in each case.

• i.By taking measurements from Figure 1, determine the proper motion of the star, in each of the x and y directions, in milliarcseconds per year.
• ii.By taking measurements from Figure 2, determine the annual parallax of the star, in milliarcseconds.

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https://preview.redd.it/c5xrow037lwc1.png?width=536&format=png&auto=webp&s=ddacf02bf24cdeedb25d2c6d48deac360209d1a5

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https://preview.redd.it/m9fzt0f47lwc1.png?width=536&format=png&auto=webp&s=a96664419484ed94fa32db5d003a6739d18fe126

I'm not looking for the answer, just an understanding on how to solve for the parallax from the information I have.

This is my first question in this subreddit. Let's assume there are two planets revolving around a black hole. One I will refer to as the "Inner planet" because it is revolving close to the black hole and the other I will refer to as the "Outer planet" because it is revolving far away from the black hole.

Let's also assume there's a portal enabling instant travel between the Inner and Outer planets.

My first question is if I travel from the Inner planet to the Outer planet using this portal and spend let's say 2 months there and then go back to the Inner planet using the portal. Would only a short amount of time(Let's say 1 week) would have passed?

Afterwards, if I were to use a rocket to travel from the Inner planet to the Outer planet and arrive there in 1 month, what would I encounter upon my arrival? Would I encounter the version of myself that had previously traveled through the portal?

Apologies in advance if my question didn't make sense.

I was letting my dog out Sunday or Monday night at 10pm CST. I usually stand on our porch and look north at the stars while she does her thing, normally about 5 minutes. So I am looking north west, somewhat high in the sky. I am looking for the UFO's as one does, and I always check the brighter stars to see if they are planes or satellites. There are two stars that are the brightest in that area so I am just looking at them for about a minuet but also scanning around. The right star which is not moving at all just blinks off. It didnt fade out but just like someone flip a switch.

I did checked on google and there was mention to an iridium flare. Ok that sounds reasonable but when i saw some videos on what it should look like it was more a a fade on, get really bright, fade out. This is not what I saw.

Maybe a plane was flying in a way that it looked like a star and appeared to not be moving switched off all of its lights?

I am in my 50's and have owned telescopes, always skywatch, ive seen meteors, comets, satellites. I am questioning weather I even saw it because I know it seems so strange.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

The cause and nature of the Big Bang remain mysterious, but the image suggests a mirror symmetry with separate circles for matter, organized energy, and antimatter preceding it. This organized energy circle acts as protection from the coexistence of matter and antimatter, similar to its role in black holes and dark matter in the universe.

To address inconsistencies in current models, mysteries like dark matter and dark energy are incorporated, as they are essential for explaining observations from telescopes and satellites. Despite the success of the standard model in many areas, it lacks explanations for dark matter and dark energy.

Quantum mechanics and relativity theory, while successful individually, cannot be reconciled without an observer, who plays a crucial role in both theories. The image suggests that the observer is inherently enclosed within the ring of organized energy, serving as a protective layer between matter and antimatter.

Quantum entanglement, a phenomenon at odds with relativity theory, is present in the pre-Big Bang singularity and later in black holes and dark matter. Black holes, often at the center of galaxies, are depicted as gravity cannons and sources of mysterious vacuum energy, related to hidden antimatter from before the Big Bang.

Internally, a black hole is portrayed as a valve with tremendous suction power (dark matter) and organized energy for separation and protection. Externally, it features a circle of dark antimatter with repulsive anti-gravity driving the universe’s expansion.

The image suggests that a new frame of reference is needed to reconcile the strange aspects of quantum mechanics and black holes, unifying them with relativity theory and philosophy. It proposes simplicity as the essence of reality, offering a fresh perspective on these complex phenomena.

Recently I have found myself so worried about a gamma burst ray hitting the earth and wiping all life on it any moment now, as from what I saw on published articles, we get hit by them every day just that they have no effect on us cause they have traveled so much throughout the galaxy that they are harmless. I’m just worried one of these days we are gonna get hit by one that is gonna be so close that is going to wipe us all out. What further intensifies this fear is that studies suggest that this could have happened before on our earth around 450 million years ago. I feel so worried to the point I have been losing sleep, I just want to feel some sense of tranquility that asures me that this is highly unlikely and that if it were to happen it would be so far away into the future that humanity would probably be extinct by the time it happens.

Sorry if this sounds so dumb, I’m just so worried

If light traveled indefinitely and instantaneously, and if nothing was obstructing our view, could we theoretically see Earth?

I'm currently an undergrad majoring in physics. I'm having my summer holidays rn and would like to take up a project in astronomy and astrophysics, at like a college level project. any topic is fine but I need guidance on how to begin, how and where to collect data and how to make all of that into a project. i read a lot of research papers and hopefully in the future publish papers too.

Okay, so I'm just thinking about a few things, regarding orbits and science fiction and something occurred to me.

One problem that's generally not addressed in time travel books/movies is that if you go back/forward in time, the planet is going to be at a different place in space. That's because it moves throughout the year. This sparked the following question:

From year to year - say in September of each year - how different is the Earth's place in the solar system with regard to the Sun? Is it always the same distance or is it slightly different due to gravity pulling the Earth towards it?

Along the same lines, the solar system travels around the galaxy. I think it makes 'one loop' ever 230 million years. How much of a different place is that? So, if you take the Earth 230 million years ago and compare it with today, how much difference would there be? A million miles? Several light years?

Ultimately, I'm thinking about this (for science fiction purposes): let's say 230 million years in our future, mankind has advanced and sent out a ship. That ship orbits a black hole (similar to Interstellar) and in a blink of an eye (from their perspective), the current Earth 'catches up' to them. Is that possible?

My guess is no, because the Earth several light years away from where it was 230 million years ago. Additionally, something feels wrong about how I phrased the question, but I can't figure it out at the moment.

I did attempt to look this up, but I don't think I got the right combination of words. There was some dispute about how long it takes the Earth to orbit the galaxy (225 v 230). I did also see 'The Solar system is moving at about 230km/s relative to the center of the Milky Way'.

I hope this all makes sense.

The title pretty much speaks for itself, but i’ll use earth as an example. Bear in mind my knowledge on this stuff is incredibly limited, and i’ll be asking in layman’s terms effectively.

Let’s say that the moon orbits the earth, and the earth orbits the sun. The sun then primarily being pulled by the black hole in the center of our galaxy from my understanding, so what is that black hole orbiting? Surely if it follows the same logic from the smallest demonstrated example, it should be orbiting or something even larger I would think.

Could anyone provide insight into that?

Are there any expected astronomical phenomena this year that coincide with a full moon?

Hello,

I am trying to run Pyraf on MacOS (Sonoma, M3 MacBook Pro)... and getting an error when starting pyraf:

materials_sheet4 î° pyraf
No graphics/display possible for this session.
setting terminal type to xgterm...

I am using xgterm on Mac installed by the IRAF installer.... When then using implot then I get a follow-up error:

--> implot sp0020.fits
No graphics display available for this session.
Graphics tasks that attempt to plot to an interactive screen will fail.
Killing IRAF task `implot'
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<CL script CL1>", line 1, in <module>
pyraf.tools.irafglobals.IrafError: Unable to plot graphics to screen

Anybody has an idea what's going wrong? A problem with the login.cl?

I was looking at the moon when I noticed a skyblue dot at 23 minutes right side of the moon, it didn't seem to move at all during the entire night and was curious to know what it was. Location: Washington dc Date: april 22nd

How does the distance between the Earth and the moon correlate with the percentage of illumination of the moon over time? When I look at the information when it is full moon the distance is around 400,000km and when is is new moon around 350,000km and more illuminated it is further away the moon is. But when moon is on perigee it is close and light up. Is this totally random or how does it work?

Also when would the waves in ocean be stronger when the moon illumination is 0% at 360,000km or 100% at 360,000km? Does light have any effect on gravitational pull of the moon

If there is a study about this please link it to me. Sorry for the long question

Around noon pacific time today I saw a very large splash occur on the horizon in the ocean. At first I thought “Whale”… but it was much too large a splash and we’re at least a month past when they would be near. After the giant splash I continued watching looking for any evidence of boats/whales/anything. Nothing in sight. So it occurred to me that we’re in the midst of the Lyrids Meteor Shower right now. And perhaps I saw a piece of this? I’m guessing the odds must very slim to see a “falling star” land at sea, but I’m not sure what else it could have been. Maybe there is some database that tracks meteors entering the earth’s atmosphere and I could verify? Fortunately my husband also saw the anomaly- so we have two frames of reference rather than one. Neither one of us could see a streak of light as the sun was super bright. Thank you for guidance!

Even as an astronomy enthusiast something seemingly simple is baffling me. Probably my lack of understanding of optics or just getting slow with age.

I’m on vacation, sat by the beach for a week now staring at the sky for hours, as one does. I see the moon and the sun near the horizon at opposite ends of the sky.

Two questions:

1. When I look at the stretch of sky between them over me - why am I not seeing the actual 150million or so kms between the sun and the moon? It seems like I should be.

2. Probably answered by the first - when I see the face of the moon lit up why doesn’t it add up to where I see the sun in my sky? (Edit for clarity: for instance it was lit up more near the top which would suggest the sun was far ‘higher’ in space compared to where I was seeing it)

Is this like visual compression with zoom lenses at play? Eager to be educated here..

TIA

This may be a newbie question, but why does there seem to be such a large discrepancy between the elevation of the moon on various websites vs what I see in real life.

For instance, looking at the moon recently I would say the elevation looks to be around 45 degrees. When I check various websites, they all confirm that it is actually elevated around 20 degrees.

I can't find reaources online that explain this, perhaps I misunderstand how to use the elevation calculation?

In case I didn't word my question clearly or correctly: So, the sun is traveling through the galaxy, around the galactic center, and the planets are on the planetary disc around the sun...all heading in that same direction together. So is it our northern hemisphere that is 'facing' that direction of travel (of the sun's)?

I know it's not perfect, hemispherically, due to our axis tilt/wobble, but roughly speaking it'd be the north pole or the south pole that's facing toward the sun's path of forward progress, with the opposite pole 'trailing' 'behind'...right?

Recently read about it and got curious :) Would appreciate some random facts and knowledge about the event.

Assuming the life forms were equally as advanced as humans, not colonizing their solar systems or anything. What about before they discover electricity?

NOT only galaxies solar systems,rings of planets like Jupiter,saturn,etc ,the disc of black hole(ecretion disc or secrition disc idk what to call it).why why are the following a plane why aren't they in an spherical shape or why don't they have multiple planes(BTW I am a high schooler and this question just popped into my mind so please try to explain this in a simple/ more theoretical way instead of mathematical way

i'm very confused coz google and solar balls said Triton was a Dwarf Planet before it got captured by Neptune's Orbit, but other sources said Triton was not classified as a dwarf planet, but rather, it was a free-floated object/Rogue Planet. Which one should I believe? 🥲

I haven't been able to get a straight answer on this via Google searches or YouTube videos so far, but maybe I haven't looked hard enough. However, I just decided to make a post here, and see if someone could answer my question.
If the universe was dark, would we know? As in, if all the stars we've observed from hundreds, millions, billions of light years away, if they weren't there anymore, would we be able to tell?
My guess is no, because everything we can see is purely because the light has reached us; we can't tell if the light is no longer being transmitted by something because it takes time for the light to reach us.
But, I wasn't sure if there was some science-y way we'd be able to tell prior to the last of the light managing to reach us. I'd appreciate any answers you all give me :3

The idea of our universe being dark without us knowing kinda messes me up lol but like, in a good way. I like thinking about it.

IE, if it lost any companions 4 billion years ago, I imagine it would be harder to trace evidence vs if it only lost it 100 million years ago.

I understand the Astronomical Unit (defined as 149 597 870 700 m) is based on the distance between Earth and the Sun. But since the Earth's orbit is an ellipse, that means it's not a constant distance. The farthest is about ~152 million km and the shortest is ~147 million km. Also, if I recall, Earth is moving away from the Sun for about 15m / 100 years. So on what base does the Astronomical Unit is really established and how can it be a constant?
Thanks

When we're looking up at the Milky Way are we ever looking toward the center of the galaxy? If yes what are the conditions and if no which parts are we looking at?

Edit

Thank you everyone for the amazing responses. I have no doubt that I will be able to spot the area next time I leave the city.

Hi all,

Hope you are well. I'm just curious about how I should start preparing for the astronomy olympiad with no background in astronomy. I'm in the USA, so I have to take 2 exams before I even could qualify for being on the international team. The first exam is the USAAAO. How should I prepare for the USAAAO with no astronomy background? Any resources you all recommend? Thank you sm!