Questions tagged [solar-system]
Refers to questions concerning the solar system containing Earth. For other solar systems, use the 'planetary-system' tag.
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Do the planets really orbit the Sun?
We often say that the planets orbit the Sun, which is usually a reasonable approximation. But in reality both Sun and the planets orbit the center-of-mass/center-of-gravity of the whole solar system, ...
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How do we know that Voyager's data is correct?
I was wondering for some time how we know that the scientific data received by the Voyager spacecrafts are correct?
Specifically, I'm wondering about the recent "tsunami-wave" (frequency of ionized ...
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Why are probes that tend to explore outer system always launched to go outwards instead of straight upwards or downwards?
Let's take a look at the trajectory of variety probe missions.
New Horizons and Ultima Thule will be 4.1 billion miles away when it visits the Kuiper Belt object. This chart shows the path of New ...
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What is the farthest artificial satellite in orbit in our solar system?
When did we send the farthest satellite and what is its role and name ?
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Can a moon orbit its planet faster than its planet rotates?
Can a moon orbit its planet faster than its planet rotates?
Can a moon orbit its planet more than once per the planet's day? It seems possible but I'm not sure.
Are there any known examples of this ...
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What's the (particle) density of the asteroid belt?
Obviously the asteroid belt is pretty sparsly populated. But how sparsly exactly?
What is the state of knowledge regarding how many particles are there in a given size bracket and a volume, what ...
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What types of sustainable energy are available beyond Mars?
Most of the energy we use on Earth in our daily activities is a derivative of solar; wind, hydroelectric, coal, gas (oil), wood fire, solar cells. While we might not think about it, all of these are ...
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How much of the Interplanetary Transport Network is currently known?
The Interplanetary Transport Network is a network of mathematically-defined paths through our solar system that would require little to no energy for a spacecraft to follow them, albeit at very low ...
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What target is the most difficult to reach in the solar system?
"Most difficult", as in the minimum $\Delta v$ required, the objective being capture into an orbit around the object.
Looking through some Delta-v maps, I would suspect the answer to be some inner ...
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If Saturn or Jupiter were in Earth's orbit, would any of their moons be habitable for humans?
The majority of exoplanets found so far are comparable in size to Jupiter or Saturn. Which, as we know, are problematic for human habitation. But their moons have a lot of potential.
Some of these ...
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Is it possible that a giant 10th planet exists in our solar system? [closed]
It seems that some people maintain the existence of a "planet X" is all but science fiction, while others claim that its existence is a possibility, even if that's relatively a remote one. ...
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What is the most fuel efficient way out of the Solar System?
I understand with current technology we can't just fly a straight line out of the solar system but which way out would need the least fuel?
Currently to navigate the solar system it is a dance ...
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By when can we pass by Voyager 1?
I am just curious to know if there is any estimation, no matter how rough it could be, about when another human artifact can go farther than Voyager 1 with respect to the Earth; years, decades, any ...
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How likely is it that the Voyager spacecrafts haven't yet been damaged by micrometeoroids?
Both Voyagers have been traveling at over $60,000$ km/h for well over four decades and still seem to function properly, taking into account the slowly dropping power and warmth available from their ...
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Does the radiation danger in interplanetary space decrease the further you get from the sun?
Does radiation danger increase or decrease as you travel farther from the Sun?
I understand that there's a significant radiation hazard to astronauts. Say, traveling from Earth to Mars, due to ...
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What does "side view" of solar system look like?
I'm trying to grasp what a 2D "side-view" of the solar system looks like. There are many examples of a "top-down" view of the solar system. But the side-view confuses me somewhat.
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Does cosmic dust pose a problem for long-term satellites, telescopes and probes?
We have many long-term satellite observatories and probes in outer space way above the Earth's magnetosphere, and some of them progressively cruising out of our Solar system. Off the top of my head, ...
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What are the implications if Juno finds that Jupiter has a solid core?
Juno has arrived at Jupiter, and will begin taking measurements to determine if the gas giant has a solid core. But what I cannot seem to find is the implications such a discovery would have. This ...
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Where could we build a space elevator today (2014)?
A space elevator is an interesting concept, allowing for very low cost transit to orbit. Currently we don't seem to have a technology that will provide a strong enough cable to make the climb from ...
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What processes create an object with an interstellar velocity?
An object like Oumuamua originates in a solar system. This object has roughly the inertia of everything else there. I can imagine stuff on the edge of the accretion zone for a star that...WANDER off......
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Why is it so hard to figure out if Voyager 1 has left the solar system?
I recently noticed the comic above, and wondered what, exactly, makes it so hard to tell whether Voyager 1 has left the solar system. I can think of three reasons:
Scientists can't agree on where the ...
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How does a planet's gravity push away smaller bodies that would otherwise intersect its orbit?
I was reading an article about dwarf planets online where I stumbled upon the following definition of a planet:
The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as being in orbit around the ...
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Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?
Yesterday on Dec 10 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun and entered the interstellar-medium;...
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Can you have a rainbow on any bodies in the solar system besides Earth?
We know from Flying on dense atmosphere planets & moons that many bodies in our solar system have sufficient atmosphere for at least the concept of flying to be considered.
What about the ...
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What is a planet intercept?
As a fun side project I'm writing a turn-based game that tries to portrait solar system travel little bit more realistically then most of games do. I want to calculate the cost of traveling between ...
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How many satellites would be required for Solar System GPS?
GPS is a Global Positioning System. it uses satellites in orbit to identify precise location on a globe. Several posts here talk about it being used in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with success. About 30 ...
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Is there free, accurate and updated data on planetary body positions in the solar system?
I'm a software developer and I'm trying to move towards astrophysics. I wanted to create an accurate solar system model using real-time accurate data. I've found the NASA data site, however I can only ...
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How much do we know about minerals and raw materials that are in our solar system?
Based on satellite and robots research, is there an overview/inventory of mineral resources that has been discovered till now on the planets, moons, asteroids and comets of our solar system (e.g. list,...
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Navigation within solar system
I know star trackers are used in most cases for attitude determination of space craft traveling within the solar system.
But what methods are currently used for coordinate determination, i.e. the ...
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Is it pure luck that the voyager 1 survived to travel beyond our solar system in interstellar space?
A random question. At the very first try we succeeded. Though it might not be strange, What was the probability of surviving so long with so many external variables and constants.?
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How do we define the aphelion of Earth?
After seeing this question, I was curious on how we define the aphelion of Earth. On a quick search it said that the aphelion is the point when Earth is the furthest way from the sun. However, all the ...
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What other bodies in the solar system are most likely to contain forms of life?
There have been many candidates stated as potential habitats for life outside of Earth, but what are considered to be the most likely to harbor life?
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Sending a satellite towards or away from the Sun
I remember reading here that it is more difficult (cost? fuel?) to send a satellite towards the Sun compared to sending a satellite away from it. Is this true? And if it is, how come?
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High resolution images of surfaces of other planets and moons
We have high resolution images of the the surface of the Earth taken by satellites (e.g. the images from Google Earth). Why have none of the orbiters going to any other planet or celestial body in our ...
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Have Magnetorquers been used anywhere outside of the Earth?
On Earth, small satellites often include Magnetorquers. A magnetorquer allows the satellite to re-orient itself without using fuel in a way more permanent than magnets.
While not every planet has a ...
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Where will we get nitrogen in space?
It's expensive to launch things out of a gravity well. So in the future, as we seek to manufacture things in space, it's worth exploring the possibility of harvesting them there as well.
In the ...
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Is the Heliosphere as elliptical as this graphic suggests?
I noticed the following graphic being used in an article discussing the Voyager probes. It also appears on Wikipedia's Heliosphere page:
The same page states that:
On a broader scale, the motion ...
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What is the largest body in the solar system we could meaningfully and accurately adjust the orbit of?
There is a lot of science fiction and emerging science that move comet and asteroids as part of the main plot. Pretty much everything in our solar system, is in orbit around the Sun, or in orbit ...
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How are artificial satellites of non-Earth celestial bodies positioned?
A body on Earth's surface can be positioned easily knowing the GPS coordinates, assuming the body is in direct path or 4 GPS satellites. But how is a satellite (say Maven or India's Mangalyaan) which ...
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How was the radius of Venus measured so accurately (± 3 km) via radar in the mid 1960's, before Venera 4 and Mariner 5?
In several answers to the question When did planetary scientists realize Venus' surface pressure was almost 100x that on Earth? How did they find out? the known radius of Venus is mentioned.
It was ...
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Any algorithmic models of our solar system to predict positions relative to earth?
I'm looking for a map/model of the movements of our solar system and associated moons.
What are the 'best' algorythmic models to represent our solar system. Looking to write a game/edutainment app ...
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Did Rosetta improve on models of non-gravitational effects on comet 67P's orbit?
Question: Since the presence of the Rosetta spacecraft near comet 67P allowed for a detailed mass measurement, extremely precise position and velocity determinations, and physcal measurement and ...
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Does the Earth have any Trojan asteroids?
Are there any known Trojan objects residing in the Sun-Earth L4 (SEL4) and L5 (SEL5) Lagrange points, also named "Greek" and "Trojan" groups, respectively?
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How do we measure the atmospheres of Solar system planets?
How much is it possible to measure from Earth and how accurately without sending probes to the planets? I am curious about how atmospheric boundary (altitude), atmospheric pressure, scale height were ...
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Precision in the space navigation [duplicate]
I am curious about the precision NASA and other agencies have in the space navigation.
Are they always accurate to the meter in position they aim for; in mission like the recent rover landing on the ...
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Which planet gets the most money? Which gets the least?
I'm curious if anyone has ever tallied the expenditures of all of the world's space programs, and then tried to divide it by which planet was targeted. It's possible this has already been done.
If ...
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What words are used to mean in relation to or origin of a planet?
Pretty simple question I think, but I am having trouble confirming a legitimate answer.
If things related to Mars are Martian, things related to Jupiter are Jovian, and things related to the Moon ...
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Has there been any mission to land on a planet or moon in the Outer Solar System?
Are there any planets or moons in the Outer Solar System, where a man-made object has landed and made photographs of its surface?
I can remember an article somewhere that said there's only one moon ...
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Belt of matter at ~14 AU?
In this terrific answer user Hobbes presents a graph of escape velocity as a function of distance from the Sun:
I notice that at about 14 AU the graph goes from decreasing exponentially to ...
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Is pulsar timing a viable positioning system for solar system missions
I was reading one of the questions about a version of GPS around Mars, and I started wondering about a Solar system wide positioning system -- large satellites with accurate clocks and powerful ...
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