Space & Astronomy
Exploring "Why" questions about Space & Astronomy
480 articles
Why did it change from Chinese New Year to ‘Lunar New Year’ if multiple other cultures have lunar calendars with different dates for New Years (ie Islam, Judaism, etc)?
It is technically called Lunar New Years because, as you know, the calender is based off the phases of the moon. It is commonly called Chinese New Years in the west because "white people" first heard
Why do noises seem to get louder as you start falling asleep
Because you don't have much other sensory input coming in. Same reason why a lot of people close their eyes when they really want to listen to music.
Why are most humans generally scared, startled, or grossed out by most bugs, even ones that don’t pose any kind of threat to them?
Non-dangerous bugs look a lot like dangerous bugs. Like, indistinguishable unless you're an entomologist/arachnologist. (The same goes for snakes, etc.) So it was an evolutionary advantage ( = you wer
Why deploy all 10 Iridium-3 Satellites in the same location?
The satellites presumably have a small amount of fuel on board. It doesn't take much fuel to tweak your orbit a bit to get the satellites all following the same orbit but spaced out around the orbit.
Why do all vision charts start with a large capital E?
When the Snellen chart is used for a basic assessment, the order of the letters doesn't really matter--the variation starting with E just happens to be commonly used by manufacturers. (There's little
Why did we get to keep our atmosphere while Mars’ was stolen?
Magnetic field. The dynamo generated by the Earth's core would have to stop for us to lose our magnetic field. This field deflects the charged particles of the solar wind, which would scour our atmosp
Why does my computer need to restart after certain installations?
Because while your PC is running, it is actively using files that the install needs to modify. It'd be a bit like trying to paint on a small canvas, while someone is still trying to draw the image. No
Why helicopters and planes can’t get out of the earth?
They need to push down on the air to keep flying. In space, there's no air to push down on. Eventually, the air becomes so thin that you can't push enough of it down to keep yourself up.
Why do we call Earths moon “The Moon”, when every other moon in the solar system have their own separate name?
We started calling it the moon before we had discovered what a moon really was, or that other planets had their own moons.
Why does starting task manager when my computer is frozen seem to unfreeze it?
Task manager has top priority, so if any other program is hogging up the computer in an endless cycle you can force it to shut down.