Space & Astronomy
Exploring "Why" questions about Space & Astronomy
480 articles
Why did colour come to cinema before TV (For example, Dr. No was released in 1962 in colour but An Unearthly Child was in greyscale and released in 1963)
It all comes down to transmission. To move a old black and white movie, you put a can of black and white film in a box and drove it to a theater, you then shined a light through it and it showed up on
Why can’t we get high res satellite views of places like Iraq and Afghanistan?
most of the stuff you see on google maps that's really up close isn't satellite images, it's actually low plane flyover images. For obvious reasons we can't take those images there. There are high res
Why can you stare directly at the sun when it’s setting, but can’t when it’s high in the sky?
I've never learned this myself, but if I had to take a guess I would say that it's because during a sunset the light from the sun has to travel through a longer stretch of atmosphere before it gets to
Why do movies with intro-credits spell out the character name of the last person, e.g. ‘starring Maffis as the OP’ but not the characters of the other actors?
It's called last billing. It's used when you have an actor who is notable enough that they should stand out in the credits, but doesn't have the lead role, which is listed first. Billing order is impo
Why computers sometimes take so long to cancel a print job and begin the next? It even sometimes requires a restart.
[Here is an explanation and a way to resolve it from reddit user /r/Shikyo from four years ago that will help.](_URL_0_)
why the do construction workers “cone off” miles of highway into one lane when they are only working on a small space?
So, because I have nothing better to do with my life, I actually downloaded the "Workzone Safety Guide" and was given [this] (_URL_0_) illustration which tells you exactly why. In short, there is a zo
Why is jupiter considered a planet when it is basically just a big ball of gas without surface?
Because "solid surface" isn't a requirement to be considered a planet. The current classification is as follows: (1) A "planet"1 is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has suf
Why can’t we attach a 100X microscope to the eye piece of a 100X telescope and get a 10000X zoom?
It's really hard to answer this in an ELI5 manner, there's a lot of complex optical physics in play. What is important in optical systems, particularly when you are talking about 'zoom' is resolution.
Why is our breathing involuntary until we start to think about it, then it becomes voluntary?
Evolutionarily, there were advantages for us to be able to control our breathing (hide from predators in silence, swim under water without downing, avoid noxious odors etc.). I can't think of any bene
Why does the moon look larger the lower it is in the sky?
The size of a viewed object can be measured objectively either as an angular size (the visual angle that it subtends at the eye, corresponding to the proportion of the visual field that it occupies),