Space & Astronomy
Exploring "Why" questions about Space & Astronomy
480 articles
Why do fiscal years start in April (usually)? Why don’t companies just pick Jan like the calendar year?
Depends on where you are. UK fiscal years are based on the old Julian calendar, where the new year started on what is now ~April 5th-6th. Changing it now would mean everyone would have to balance the
Why do all of the actual pictures of Saturn appear to be digitally render and sorta fake?
Can you give any examples, you may be looking at colour corrected or false colour images which will look worse
Why does the many-cosmoses theory imply there is an alternate copy of ourselves?
The many-worlds interpretation is a particle physics idea that attempts to explain what’s really happening when something is in superposition. It’s more of a guide on how to interpret particle-wave du
why aren’t there any other species that are as smart and advanced as we are on earth?
Nerve cells use a tremendous amount of energy, more than other cells. They use the energy all the time and not just when being used as it costs energy to maintain the potential to fire. So a large bra
why do words start to sound distorted/foreign when repeated multiple times?
/u/kimba55 has it wrong. It's not called jamais vu; what you're looking for is the phenomenon called [semantic satiation](_URL_0_). *Edit: it appears semantic satiation is a subset of jamais vu specif
Why can’t we build a massive building with an elevator that takes you into space?
Because no material exists that can support that kind of weight (there are many, many other engineering challenges as well, but that's the easy one).
Why do current generation solar panels only operate at ~30% efficiency? What stops us from achieving 100%?
100% efficiency would basically mean the solar panel is a black hole. Any light that hits it disappears and is entirely converted to electricity. The panel itself wouldn't get hot (because the heat is
Why does a GPS unit require signal from at least 4 satellites in order to determine its position?
Essentially, the satellite tells the device how far apart they are. It's easier to visualize in [2d](_URL_0_), where you'd only need three satellites to pinpoint your location. The radius is your dist
why or how does mercury kill or harm us?
Pure mercury needs to be inhaled as a vapor to affect you. You can actually, don't try this at home, eat pure mercury without serious side effects as it's not absorbed by your body in a liquid state.
Why haven’t we been back to the moon?
We have, several times. After a while the scientific gains from returning became insufficient to justify the cost, and these days this is even more true with the advances that have been made to space