Test Your Astronomy Knowledge!

[lousyskater]

hmm, i'll give you guys an easy one:


what is a pulsar?

 

[Scuba Pete]

It's a type of star that is growing or contracting... which is merely a SWAG (Scientific Wild *** Guess).

 

[lousyskater]

nope. anyone else?

 

[oracle]

Aside from local gravitational interactions, the galaxies are sitting motionless in space. However, the distance between the galaxies is increasing, because space itself is expanding. (Kind of hard to imagine, isn't it?)

That's really interesting. Nice thread.

A computer simulation depicting a large chunk of our universe
Image Courtesy of G. L. Bryan, M. L. Norman, UIUC, NCSA, GC3

A diagram depicting possible Universe futures. Image courtesy of STScI

 

[Mr Spinkles]

Cool pictures, oracle. You can scratch the closed universe though...that theory has been thrown out.

If I remember correctly, a pulsar is a neutron star that is rotating very rapidly and emitting intense radiation from two poles. We see what is known as a pulsar when one of these beams sweeps over Earth. When they were first discovered, they pulsed so rapidly and kept such precise time that they were called "LGM" or "Little Green Men". Funny how we so easily jump to the conclusion that beings like us cause the phenomena we see in nature...

 

[lousyskater]

Cool pictures, oracle. You can scratch the closed universe though...that theory has been thrown out.

If I remember correctly, a pulsar is a neutron star that is rotating very rapidly and emitting intense radiation from two poles. We see what is known as a pulsar when one of these beams sweeps over Earth. When they were first discovered, they pulsed so rapidly and kept such precise time that they were called "LGM" or "Little Green Men". Funny how we so easily jump to the conclusion that beings like us cause the phenomena we see in nature...

correct! ok, somebody else go...

 

[SK2005]

Okay, here goes...
Why is the sky dark at night? Now, you are probably thinking, well because the sun goes down. Well, sorry, but the answer is a little more complicated than that...If you think about it it is not even possible to have a "dark" night.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Oracle,

That bottom right looks more like Florida this past hurricane season.

 

[almifkhar]

this is a great topic by the way. if the big bang theory is correct then galaxies are finite. the universe just blows my mind and i must say, if i ever get the chance to talk to god, my topic with he/she/it would be about the universe.