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Top Document: [sci.astro] Solar System (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (5/9) Previous Document: Introduction Next Document: E.01 How did the solar system form? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
[Dates in brackets are last edit.]
E.01 How did the solar system form? [2000-07-15]
E.02 Has anyone attempted to discern details of the star that went
supernova and formed our local group of stars? [2002-05-04]
E.03 What is the "Solar Neutrino Problem"? [1997-07-01]
E.04 Could the Sun be part of a binary (multiple) star system?
[1995-08-27]
E.05 When will the Sun die? How? [1995-08-23]
E.06 What happens to the planets when the Sun dies? [2000-03-17]
E.07 Could the Sun explode? [1995-07-07]
E.08 How are solar system objects and features named? [1995-11-29]
E.09 Where can I find pictures and planetary data? (ref)
E.10 Could Jupiter become a star? [1995-07-07]
E.11 Is Pluto a planet? Is Ceres? Is Titan? [1995-08-18]
E.12 Additional planets:
12.1 What about a planet (Planet X) outside Pluto's orbit?
[2000-05-21]
12.2 What about a planet inside Mercury's orbit? [1996-11-20]
E.13 Won't there be catastrophes when the planets align in the
year 2000? [2000-07-15]
E.14 Earth-Moon system:
14.1 Why doesn't the Moon rotate? [1997-10-01]
14.2 Why does the Moon always show the same face to the
Earth? [1997-10-01]
14.3 Is the Moon moving away from the Earth? (and why is Phobos
moving closer to Mars?) [1997-06-04]
14.4 What was the origin of the Moon? [1998-11-04]
E.15 What's the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse?
Where can I find more information about eclipses?
[2001-01-17]
E.16 What's the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt? [1998-02-28]
E.17 Asteroid Impacts
17.1 What would be the effects of an asteroid impact on the
Earth? [1998-04-14]
17.2 What can we do about avoiding impacts? [2000-01-26]
17.3 I heard that an asteroid was going to hit the Earth?!
[2000-01-26]
E.18 What's the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and
meteorites? [1998-04-14]
E.19 How do we know that meteorites are from the Mars? (or the
Moon?) [2002-05-04]
User Contributions:Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic:Top Document: [sci.astro] Solar System (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (5/9) Previous Document: Introduction Next Document: E.01 How did the solar system form? Part0 - Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Part8 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: jlazio@patriot.net
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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with stars, then every direction you looked would eventually end on
the surface of a star, and the whole sky would be as bright as the
surface of the Sun.
Why would anyone assume this? Certainly, we have directions where we look that are dark because something that does not emit light (is not a star) is between us and the light. A close example is in our own solar system. When we look at the Sun (a star) during a solar eclipse the Moon blocks the light. When we look at the inner planets of our solar system (Mercury and Venus) as they pass between us and the Sun, do we not get the same effect, i.e. in the direction of the planet we see no light from the Sun? Those planets simply look like dark spots on the Sun.
Olbers' paradox seems to assume that only stars exist in the universe, but what about the planets? Aren't there more planets than stars, thus more obstructions to light than sources of light?
What may be more interesting is why can we see certain stars seemingly continuously. Are there no planets or other obstructions between them and us? Or is the twinkle in stars just caused by the movement of obstructions across the path of light between the stars and us? I was always told the twinkle defines a star while the steady light reflected by our planets defines a planet. Is that because the planets of our solar system don't have the obstructions between Earth and them to cause a twinkle effect?
9-14-2024 KP