https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/12zihav/ask_anything_wednesday_physics_astronomy_earth/
created by AutoModerator on 26/04/2023 at 14:00 UTC
833 upvotes, 119 top-level comments (showing 25)
Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on **Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science**
Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...".
Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions. The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists.
Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here[1]. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience.
1: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/wiki/index#wiki_answering_askscience
If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here[2].
2: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/about/sticky
Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here[3]. Ask away!
Comment by TDeez_Nuts at 26/04/2023 at 17:13 UTC
27 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Are scientists able to replicate the processes by which crude oil is made in nature?
Comment by brickiex2 at 26/04/2023 at 16:42 UTC
47 upvotes, 2 direct replies
most people know that if you toss a basket ball in the air with "backspin", it will hit the ground and bounce towards you, if you use "forward spin" it will bounce away from you. However, it you spin the ball on your finger tip, like the Harlem Globetrotters, and drop the ball, it will hit the ground and reverse its spin, why is that?
Comment by Good_Exchange827 at 26/04/2023 at 19:27 UTC
16 upvotes, 4 direct replies
If I were floating out in deep space and I stuck my hands out in front of me, would I see them? Or would everything be black?
Comment by TheGrumpyre at 26/04/2023 at 16:56 UTC
19 upvotes, 4 direct replies
What force is it that keeps continental drift moving in the same directions so consistently over hundreds of millions of years? What keeps the liquid center of the earth constantly flowing in a pattern instead of just randomly bubbling like a boiling pot?
Comment by IWishIHavent at 26/04/2023 at 18:43 UTC
7 upvotes, 2 direct replies
People like to exemplify human tech evolution by saying that there was less than a century between our first airplane flight and landing on the Moon. But those are two different technologies with little overlap.
Could rocket science be developed before flight with airplanes? Are there examples of tech that precedes other, seemingly related tech?
Comment by rummeln at 26/04/2023 at 19:45 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Can I actually observe the curvature of the earth with my eyes? When I look out towards the horizon, specifically a large body of water, it appears to me that it's very slightly curved. Is this possible or are my eyes acting like small fish eye lenses?
Comment by sandgroper2 at 27/04/2023 at 01:35 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I'd love to see something that shows the astonishing improvement in telescopes over time. Something like a series of images of a popular target (Andromeda?) from the earliest images to the best of today.
I've spent the occasional loose evening looking, and though I'm usually pretty good at digging up the stuff I want, I'm having no luck with this.
Comment by oshitsuperciberg at 26/04/2023 at 16:31 UTC
8 upvotes, 2 direct replies
IIRC, the sun has gradually but noticeably been brightening over its lifespan. So, during a partial solar eclipse, are we experiencing the same amount of daylight that a dinosaur, neanderthal, etc would have? Or is it too much/too little? Depending of course on how much of the sun is being eclipsed. Like if just the limb is blocked are we at Neanderthal/Cro-Magnon levels, is half blocked equivalent to Triassic, etc etc.
Comment by craag at 26/04/2023 at 18:18 UTC
8 upvotes, 4 direct replies
So black holes are formed from collapsing stars, right? If so, then according to mass conservation, a star's mass equals a black hole's mass, right? So then, if a black hole has enough mass to prevent any lightwaves from escaping, why don't stars?
Comment by SternLecture at 26/04/2023 at 17:37 UTC
4 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Currently reading a book called physics as a liberal art. I got a The double slit experiment. I don't understand it. I watched multiple videos and read multiple explanations of it and it's relation to quantum entanglement and shrodingers cat. It all seems totally insane and impossible. I don't want to waste someone's time explaining it but could use a good source to better understand it.
Comment by babbieabbi at 26/04/2023 at 19:48 UTC
4 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Do you actually get rained on less if you run through it?
It probably has something to do with the amount of area you cover, because I always feel like it doesn’t make any difference. The faster you go, the faster you encounter more water?
Comment by AlfmaniaK at 26/04/2023 at 16:41 UTC
14 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Besides life, is it possible to exist other improbable feature in the cosmos? Like infinite energy? Or a planet so small that it can fit in my hand? Is there anything impossible, out there?
Comment by InfiNorth at 26/04/2023 at 16:23 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If you put a Ziploc bag in a perfect vacuum, unzip it, bulge it out so the vacuum continues into the bag, and then seal the zip on it, would anything prevent the bag from collapsing if you tried to squish it (since there isn't anything in the bag and neither is there anything outside the bag).
Comment by [deleted] at 26/04/2023 at 17:38 UTC
3 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by Embarrassed_Night_26 at 26/04/2023 at 18:04 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
what would happen if you swallow aerogel.
Comment by tjernobyl at 26/04/2023 at 19:46 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Has Mercury's sodium tail been observed to change based on solar activity, or is it reasonably constant to the limits of measurement?
Comment by Francois_the_Droll at 26/04/2023 at 21:55 UTC
3 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Why is the bottom of the grand canyon hotter than the top? The sun heats the earth, which heats the air, right? All points along the canyon walls are adjacent to "earth", and heat rises. These two things seem to suggest the bottom should not be hotter.
Comment by VodkaMargarine at 26/04/2023 at 17:32 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
We often hear that Earth is the "perfect planet" for sustaining life or it's in the "Goldilocks zone" but is this not a little naïve? Would it be possible for the earth to be *even better* suited to life than it is?
Is it possible that there are planets out there that are significantly *more* habitable and life is stronger faster and more intelligent as a result?
Comment by K-Lilith at 26/04/2023 at 16:45 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
What is time? I understand what we as humans say it is and how we experience/label/measure it. But objectively, outside of experiencing it, what is it?
Comment by dnsteele at 26/04/2023 at 16:46 UTC
7 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Part of the problem with renewable sources of energy, mainly solar and wind is that energy production does not always coincide with usage.
Energy storage is difficult, pumped storage hydro sites are not very common and batteries aren't really up to the job yet.
We can burn iron to produce energy and then use renewable power to convert iron oxide back to iron.
Is this being investigated and how would it compare to other energy storage systems?
Comment by bobobobobobooo at 26/04/2023 at 18:01 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I'm curious about my ice cubes. Every so often, I'll put a tray of six ice cubes in the freezer and once they're frozen there's one with a protrusion extending from its top. Why does this happen and why is it always only one? https://ibb.co/44hZjtb[1][2] https://ibb.co/WW7Mm8N[3][4]
Comment by mongusa011 at 26/04/2023 at 14:47 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What are the red sprites in upper atmosphere?
Comment by tdellaringa at 26/04/2023 at 17:04 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I am trying to find a map of the milky way, looking down on the plane that would show the main stars with distances to Earth. Ideally it would be on some sort of grid. I can't seem to find anything like this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Comment by braykin08 at 26/04/2023 at 18:18 UTC
2 upvotes, 3 direct replies
How does gravity work?
I understand the concept that two bodies will attract each other, and the force will vary with mass and distance, but I don't understand where that force is coming from.
The best image I got so far was objects on a trampoline. Heavier object will curve the plane toward, causing other close objects to fall toward it, but what does that plane represent?
Comment by AudienceRemote5915 at 26/04/2023 at 18:35 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
In late February, posts on measurements reporting the slowing, or even reversal, of our planet's solid metallic core within an outer liquid shell. What implications does this have for our planet? Would this impact the technology we use based on our magnetic poles? Does this mean that planets/stars with strong magnetic fields (Jupiter etc) all have a solid metal core spinning variably as well, within an outer liquid shell?