https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/vi5y3b/ask_anything_wednesday_physics_astronomy_earth/
created by AutoModerator on 22/06/2022 at 14:00 UTC
153 upvotes, 40 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.
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If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here[2].
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Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here[3]. Ask away!
Comment by BassLB at 22/06/2022 at 15:43 UTC
12 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What happens if I have a speaker right behind my head playing music, as I approach then pass the sound barrier? Would it sound like it’s slowing down then stop? Or just stop once I break the barrier
Comment by StrillyBings at 22/06/2022 at 14:24 UTC
6 upvotes, 3 direct replies
If astronauts travel through space in a vehicle traveling at a high speed, such as a mission to Mars, would the spacecraft require any sort of extra shielding to protect them during their voyage?
Comment by [deleted] at 22/06/2022 at 14:47 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by ChilindriPizza at 22/06/2022 at 14:26 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Would it be a good idea to terraform Mars? What would be the pros and cons?
Comment by Amazingawesomator at 22/06/2022 at 15:12 UTC
3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
After learning about the jwst getting one of its mirrors damaged, nasa went on to say something similar to "everything is fine".
I can understand the telescope still being okay to use, but is there a specific field or something else that will be affected by this to the point where it will make observations more difficult?
Also, D: for jwst... Its brand new and got damaged already. As a layman, i really want to see the pretty pictures
Comment by wesharcup at 22/06/2022 at 17:27 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Is anything still (motionless)in the universe.. if so how fast would it's perceived speed be. If it was say, a bowling ball 2 meters away from you
Comment by [deleted] at 22/06/2022 at 14:06 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Why is the moon moving slowly away? I forgot that since I learned it.
Comment by Scared-Ad-3841 at 22/06/2022 at 15:58 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
imagine two heavy spheres connected by a string, floating in empty space: there would be tension on the string depending on their rotation around their center of gravity.
if they would be the only two masses in the whole universe: what would happen ? How could they 'know' about their rotation relative to nothing ? would the masses 'define' properties of space, or is my question just flawed ?
Comment by Alexsmith_220622 at 22/06/2022 at 18:00 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What is the most powerful force?
Comment by CostumingMom at 22/06/2022 at 18:07 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It is known that people with astigmatism see points of light with rays.
It is also known that points of light, such as stars, twinkle due to the Earth's atmosphere.
This leads me to two questions.
1. Does "twinkling" refer to the star's blinking in the atmosphere or does it also mean that they have rays as well? (I have astigmatism, so they do both for me.)
2.
Comment by Morgwar77 at 22/06/2022 at 20:05 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
With global warming I've heard that the increased ocean surface area, heat, and resulting evaporation in the oceans will cause increased global flooding from torrential rain and nasty weather.
Is this extra moisture going to be trapped at the equator?
Isn't it possible that the melted ice and sea levels cause re-greening of existing deserts? There's gotta be a silver lining to this, it's happened several times in the past according to geologist's (Holocene period for one).
Edit: source cited
https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/climate-change-throughout-history
Comment by alittlebitaspie at 22/06/2022 at 20:12 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
When the Chicxulub impactor hit earth I've heard that ejecta hit the moon... So I'm curious, is there any modeling or data that shows that earth lost atmosphere? As in is the atmospheric pressure that we have now significantly less than what would have been pre impact? Is this something that someone has modeled or is it just something we don't have any way to tell or not how that sort of thing works?
Comment by sunsandlove at 22/06/2022 at 20:26 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If nothing can move faster than the speed of light, how does a black hole trap light? Is gravity faster than the speed of light? Or does gravity not count because it doesn't have mass?
Comment by enpap_x at 23/06/2022 at 06:05 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Could StarLink place an optical telescope in each of its satellites to create a sizeable virtual telescope? Could they take images simultaneously and stitch them together to create 3D images to find asteroids and space junk?
Comment by Elijahkazmi at 22/06/2022 at 14:07 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is more food science but no one can actually give me an answer. Why cant a company make a 100 percent pure protein powder? Like if a serving size was 200 grams of powder, on the nutrition lable it would say "serving size 200 grams.... Protein per serving: 200 grams" most protein powders even unflavored ones have like 50 grams of protein per serving but those are like 300 grams of powder. Why?
Comment by Curstdragon at 22/06/2022 at 14:29 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If photons traveling through a vacuum, traveling at c, experience no time then how does it red shift with the expansion of the universe? How does something that isn't experiencing time, change?
Comment by marwachine at 22/06/2022 at 14:23 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What is your approach to learning new things? given the abundance of information in your respective fields
Also, book recommendations please.
Comment by freerangetacos at 22/06/2022 at 15:16 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If light (electromagnetic radiation) moves at the speed of light, and as LIGO has detected, gravity also propagates at the speed of light... what is the likely MECHANISM for gravitational waves to transmit?
Comment by [deleted] at 22/06/2022 at 16:29 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
would a bullet fired straight up on the moon come back down at the same speed as it had right after firing?
Comment by xMrWoodsx at 22/06/2022 at 16:57 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Could you potentionally fill a container with photons? If yes what would critical mass breaking point look like i.e. the container is full but the flow of photons is uninterrupted.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/06/2022 at 14:07 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Is there a forseeable usage for time crystals?
Comment by Roonaan at 22/06/2022 at 20:15 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If heat is just a form of energy, can't we push energy out of the atmosphere using rockets, lasers, whatnot to reduce the overall energy inside the atmosphere and thereby reducing warming?
Comment by [deleted] at 22/06/2022 at 16:58 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Would it be possible to collect/store the static electricity created by wind/breeze over an object
Comment by teremyth at 22/06/2022 at 18:29 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I have seen a lot of videos describing gravity as a warping of the curvature of space time. Which made me wonder:
Is “matter” the absence of space? Does energy/matter sit on the grid of space time or does it instead displace space time in a way that creates the “curvature”?
Comment by compacct27 at 22/06/2022 at 19:09 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I’m working with asteroid data going years out, and I want a relatively accurate way to visualize them in 3D along their orbits. What’s a good basis function to create a fitted curve along the time series data? Is it even possible to curve fit with all the perturbations?