We only see one side of the moon, because it is tidally locked to the planet Earth (tidal locking the situation when an object’s orbital period matches its rotational period). What if the Earth was tidally locked to the Sun?
Category Archives: Astronomy
486958 Arrokoth image against a starry background
A beautiful 486958 Arrokoth image (initially nicknamed Ultima Thule) taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in original context against a starry background (i.e., not zoomed in).
100 Million Stars in the Andromeda Galaxy [amazing video!]
In January 2015, NASA released the largest image ever of the Andromeda galaxy, called the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT), taken by the Hubble telescope. This composite image involved thousands of observations, hundreds of fields, spanned about a third of the galaxy and resolved over 100 million stars. Totaling 1.5 billion pixels and requiring 4.3 …
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The sidereal days and axial tilts of the Planets
NASA Goddard Planetary Scientist James O’ Donoghue created a nice animation showing the sidereal days and axial tilts of the solar system planets.
Casting a $20 Million Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope (Giant Magellan Telescope)
The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a ground-based extremely large telescope under construction, planned for completion in 2025. When completed, it will be the world’s largest telescope and one member of the next class of giant ground-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe. It will be constructed in the …
Farout: the most-distant body ever observed in Solar System
Researchers discovered the farthest known object in our solar system and named it “Farout” (far-out-there). It is about 120 times farther than Earth is from the Sun (120 AU, see notes 1). For comparison, the most distant planet, Neptune is about 30 AU from the Sun. At its most distant, once upon a time the ninth …
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Yet Another Scale Model of the Solar System [Video]
Previously I posted articles titled “If The Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A Tediously Accurate Map Of The Solar System” and “A Scale Model Of Solar System Drawn In The Desert And The Result Is Stunning”. Since the human brain cannot deal with really large numbers, these articles provide amazing ways to understand how big …
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Size comparison of the Sun and the planets
This size comparison of the Sun and the planets in our solar system is going around frequently, but it’s still amazing to see it. Created by the San Francisco-based artist Roberto Ziche, the image features the Sun in the background with the planets, Moon, and the four dwarf planets lined up in the foreground in the …
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How many stars one can see with the naked eye?
The total number of stars that can be seen with the naked eye is 9,095, according to the Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Edition. Also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars or Yale Bright Star Catalogue, the catalog lists all the stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 (see notes 1) or brighter, which is roughly every star visible …
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10 Amazing Facts about Space
The endless depths of the sky intrigue almost all humans alike. Space is like an abstract dream coming to life when it unfolds into a number of unseen horizons. The enormous nebulas, staggering hypernovae and the smattering of countless planets and stars make it a canvas of muse. We are but a speck of dust …
