Category Archives: Questions and Answers

Most people have many questions about astronomy, and aren’t happy with the standard answers. Here are some articles trying to change this. If you have any questions you would like to see answered, ask me in an email to the address below, and I will answer your question in an article on this list

Why does Earth not have rings?

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Dear Urban Astronomer After reading your article about the rings that they found around that exoplanet, I wondered why Earth does not have rings? You mentioned that a lot of the planets in our own solar system have them, so why not us? Thanks, Wantum Rings   Dear Wantum   The planets in our Solar System which have rings are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  These four planets have a few other things in common as well:  They all have lots of moons, … Continue reading →

What is space junk?

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Space junk is any manmade object orbiting Earth that nobody owns, or that nobody controls.  It’s litter, basically, and consists of everything from used-up rocket boosters and dead satellites, to nuts and bolts dropped by careless astronauts.  Even though space is very big, it’s still becoming enough of a problem that the International Space Station has had to dodge many objects since it was first built, and at least one privately owned communication satellite has been destroyed in a collision … Continue reading →

What causes a halo around the Moon or Sun?

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A few days ago, a newspaper received a photograph of a Lunar Halo from one of their readers and asked me to explain what was going on.  You can click on the above link to read my answer, but it was by necessity rather short, and incomplete.  So what’s the full story? What we see in the image to the right is a full moon, surrounded by a colourful halo, with the constellation Scorpius faintly visible along the top border. … Continue reading →

What is an exoplanet?

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An exoplanet is a planet which is not a part of our Solar System.  Although nobody knew for sure if they even existed 20 years ago, they are now being discovered at an incredible speed – more than one every single day.  Because even the nearest stars are so far away, they are incredibly hard to see, which is why so far even the smallest yet discovered are much much larger than the Earth.     Comments?  Questions?  Why not … Continue reading →