Why does Venus rotate backward from the other planets? How long is one solar cycle? How many times did Alan Shepard orbit the Earth? How long is the magnetic solar cycle? How does Uranus' tilted axis affect its seasons? What relationship between the Earth and the Sun causes the seasons to...
If you've ever watched figure skating, you may have noticed that skaters can spin much faster if they pull their arms closer to their bodies. The more concentrated their body masses are, the faster they'll be able to rotate. The same thing happened with our solar system. The hypothetical...
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto Because of their great distance from Earth, these planets are difficult to locate, a challenge for any observer. I have never had any luck locating them with my telescope, and I probably would not have seen much more than a tiny disc if I did. In a larger tel...
How often does the Earth rotate? What is the angular distance between the moon and procyon? How long does it take for Uranus to orbit the sun? Suppose the moon started revolving faster. What effect would this have on the moon's phases? Would they be the same or different?
A suitable telescope that’s mounted to an equatorial mount is capable of high magnification, detailed views of the larger planets, and even the very distant gas planets such as Uranus and Neptune. This article focuses on capturing the 5 visible planets of our solar system as they are the ea...
The five other large moons in our solar system all have about our Moon’s gravity (0.13 to 0.18g, versus 0.16g). And Mars and Mercury have the same gravity, 0.38g. The only other bodies between 0.09g and 2.3g all are within 12% of 1g: Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. All fou...
Uranus is a weird world in many ways. The most unusual thing aboutUranusis that it's tipped over on its side, and "rolls" around the Sun on its side. That means one axis or the other is pointed at the Sun during part of its 84-year orbit. The planet does rotate on its axis onc...
Atoms are constantly in motion. They continuously vibrate, move and rotate. Even the atoms that make up the chairs that we sit in are moving around. Solids are actually in motion! Atoms can be in different states ofexcitation. In other words, they can have different energies. If we apply...
“how it should rotate”. Then it starts behaving better. Then it slows down. So Le Verrier at the Paris Observatory tries his luck at computing where a planet, further away than Uranus should be in the sky to cause this acceleration, then this slowing down of Uranus. Turns out h...
Wait for a few minutes and repeat the process, feeling free to apply and rotate at the same time if you like, as long as you don’t put too much on as we said before. You can repeat the process again if you like, but it likely isn’t necessary. ...