Disclaimer: The following material is being kept online for archival purposes.

Although accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers.

Site Map

Get a Straight Answer



Please note!

    Listed below are questions submitted by users of "From Stargazers to Starships" and the answers given to them. This is just a selection--of the many questions that arrive, only a few are listed. The ones included below are either of the sort that keeps coming up again and again, or else the answers make a special point, often going into details which might interest many users.


For an index file listing questions by topic, click here.
  1. About asteroids hitting Earth.
  2. The swirling of water in a draining tub.
  3. Dispensing water at zero-g.
  4. Robert Goddard and World War II.
  5. Asymmetry of the Moon's orbit.
  6. Measuring distance from the Sun.
  7. Who owns the Moon?
  8. Acceleration of a rocket.
  9. Rebounding ping pong balls (re. #35)
  10. Rebounding ping pong balls and gravity-assist
  11. Why don't we feel the Sun's gravity pull?
  12. How hot are red, white and blue (etc.) stars?
  13. How does the solar wind move?
  14. The shape of the orbit of Mars
  15. What if the Earth's axis were tilted 90° to the ecliptic?


  16. Mars and Venus
  17. Where is the boundary between summer and winter?
  18. The Ozone Hole
  19. What keeps the Sun from blowing up?
  20. Those glorious Southern Skies!
  21. Should we fear big solar outbursts?
  22. Planetary line-up and the sunspot cycle
  23. What are comet tails made of?
  24. If light speed sets the limit, why fly into space?
  25. Does precession mis-align ancient monuments?
  26. Why does the Earth rotate? Why is it a sphere?
  27. What's so hard about reaching the Sun?

For a list including questions 28--324, click here.

  1. Tapping Atmospheric Electricity
  2. Global Disaster in 2012?
  3. What's the difference between speed and velocity?
  4. Effect of Gravity on Electromagnetic Waves
  5. Why is North the reference, not South?
  6. The lowest 700 km of our Atmosphere
  7. Doomsday 2012?
  8. Where does a Flying Bird get its Support?
  9. Why does Sun seem to move?
  10. Why don't waves disturb each other?
  11. Does the Moon's motion Change?
  12. Big Dipper and Weather
  13. What IS the Ecliptic?
  14. Precession, Greenhouse and more...
  15. Latest Sunrise, Earliest Sunset
  16. Falling off the Earth's Bottom?
  17. Rolling down a slope
  18. Pelton Wheel Efficiency
  19. Energy loss rate of our Sun
  20. The Sun's distance
  21. Why does sunlight have a continuous spectrum?

  22. Harry Paul Sprain's perpetual Motion Device
  23. Can the plasma that fills space help spaceflight?
  24. Spiral arms of our galaxy
  25. What powers a glider?
  26. UFOs
  27. Maximum speed for propeller-driven airplane?
  28. The speed at which gravity spreads
  29. Layers of the Earth
  30. Why doesn't the sky fall on us?
  31. Imagine a non-rotating Earth
  32. Flying east with a 1° error
  33. US Flag on the Moon
  34. Rope stretched across a long lake...
  35. About studying electronics in the USA
  36. Publish Stargazers as a book?
  37. Charging of Earth by lightning:   +   or   –  ?
  38. If no stars were seen--could Earth's orbital motion be discovered?
  39. Local Solar Time in Iceland
  40. Is orbital motion same as free fall?
  41. Build a straight tower in warped space?


  42. The 2011-2 sunspot maximum
  43. Is Earth adding mass?
  44. Shape of a "bottle rocket"
  45. Fantasy spaceflight vs. reality
  46. Telling a 7-year old about stars "dying"
  47. (1) Why is lightning jagged?     (2) What did Tesla do?
  48. How can the north wall of my house be in sunlight?
  49. Heating the inside of Earth
  50. Dawning of the Age of Aquarius
  51. Why is hydrogen the fuel of choice?
  52. Gamma ray bursts
  53. Counter-clockwise swirling motion in the atmosphere
  54. Leap years on the Jewish calendar
  55. Earth axis tilt and climate (1)
  56. Earth axis tilt and climate (2)
  57. Does the Sun move?
  58. Can the Sun interfere with the visibility of the Big Dipper?
  59. Why can't we feel the Earth's rotation?
  60. Is our galaxy held together by a central black hole?
  61. Why don't gas planets just evaporate?
  62. Source of the Sun's energy
  63. Point of gravity equilibrium
  64. Solar system motion through the Galaxy
  65. Spaceflight by waiting for the Earth to turn?
  66. Does Earth rotation affect size of creatures?
  67. The year 2012
  68. Are our galactic arms winding up or opening up?
  69. Advice to a home-schooling mother
  70. Are all stars we see suns?

  71. Newton's 3rd law
  72. Newton's 3rd law
  396A Posssibility of Asteroid Hitting Earth (1)
  396B Posssibility of Asteroid Hitting Earth (2)
  1. Author's IQ
  2. Global Warming caused by Sun getting nearer?
  3. The year 2012
  4. Empty space behind North Star?
  5. The year 2012 and the 26,000 year cycle
  6. "Quarter Squares"
  7. Do Rockets need "something to push against"?
  8. Sunrise-Sunset asymmetry
  9. Re-entry from orbit
  10. Earth Axis and Gravity
  11. The year 2012
  12. Choosing an Aerospace Career
  13. Advice for "new" physics teacher
  14. Paradox of Time Travel
  15. Is 7th grade Earth science boring?
  16. Air Resistance
  17. Experimenting with Microwave Oven
  18. Is the Sun losing mass?
  19. Sun's position at noon, south of equator
  20. Fred Hoyle's theory of the Sun's Corona
  21. Why don't Protons and Electrons combine?
  22. Days in a Year
  23. Position of the Moon in the sky

  24. Earth crossing Galactic Equator?
  25. Is the geocentric theory ruled out?
  26. Does the Southern Sky have a Pole Star?
  27. What is the fate of starlight energy?
  28. Double-slit diffraction of particles
  29. Does the Sun overhead reduce effective weight?
  30. Evidence for Global Warming ?
  31. Distances to the Equator
  32. Weight on the Equator and at the Pole
  33. Why doesn't gravity overcome buoyancy?
  34. The Prime Meridian
  35. Is L2 in the Earth's Shadow?
  36. In what direction is Israel from NY?
  37. Is the World Overpopulated?
  38. Magnetic Energy
  39. Magnetic Carnot Cycle
  40. Defining the Equator

  41. Second Moon for Earth?
  42. The year 2012 and a distant companion of our Sun
  43. Distance between two points on a sphere
  44. Getting sucked I by Gravity
  45. The work of Nikola Tesla
  46. Firing a cannon straight up
  47. Does one see half the sky--or more, or less?
  48. Why are nights dark?
  49. The origin of the Solar System
  50. Flying to other planets
  51. The heat of the Sun's corona
  52. Crossing our galaxy's equator
  53. Newton's 3rd law--in statics and dynamics
  54. Barycenter of Earth-Moon system
  55. What if Earth rotated in only 10 hours>

  56. What Book covers material of "Stargazers"?
  57. Climate Change
  58. A classroom Demonstration
  59. Why doesn't the Solar System Collapse?
  60. A Diamond Core for Jupiter?
  61. Why no "artificial gravity" on the space station?
  62. Precession of the axis of Mars
  63. Does the axis of the Sun precess?
  64. Can a microwave oven produce 900 deg Celsius?
  65. Beaming energy through space
  66. The year 2012
  67. The Earth's Precession Cycle
  68. The empty space inside an atom



Author and Curator:   Dr. David P. Stern
     Mail to Dr.Stern:   stargaze("at" symbol)phy6.org .

Last updated 11-21-2008   Edited 2 November 2016

Above is background material for archival reference only.

NASA Logo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Official: Adam Szabo

Curators: Robert Candey, Alex Young, Tamara Kovalick

NASA Privacy, Security, Notices