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Editor's Note: This is the second in a two-part series. Part
1 ran last week.
Why don't meteor
showers actually "shower"?
Often, a meteor "shower" is seen as one meteor or "shooting
star" per minute of viewing time, compared to the 3 to 6 per hour that occur
during an average night because of the large increase. It is rare for Earth to
pass through a dense trail of dust that has been shed recently by a comet, but
this is what is necessary for a true meteor shower. Nevertheless, in 1999 and
2001, this occurred with the Leonid Meteor Shower, which produced thousands of
meteors per hour.
What is a "blue moon"
really?
Usually, the Moon is called a blue moon when it is the
second full moon in a month. Technically, however, this is the fourth full moon
of a season. The term "blue moon" comes from folklore. Each full moon had a
name according to its time of year. A full moon that came early had no name,
and was simply called a blue moon.
Why is space black
and the sky blue?
The sky appears black about 20 miles above the earth because
of how light travels in waves. Each color of wave has a different length. Sunlight is a mixture of every color and,
therefore, every length. However, the short wavelengths of blue light scatter
when traveling through the thickest part of the atmosphere, allowing us to see
only blue light during the day.
Are black holes really
giant vacuum cleaners like in the cartoons?
No, black holes do not suck up nearby material. Instead,
material falls into a black hole after colliding with material that is orbiting
the black hole at a safe distance. The black hole's immense gravitational field
then becomes too much for the material that has gotten too close, causing it to
become trapped in a one-way spiral to oblivion.
I hope that some of these answers have helped to clear up
some of those cosmic questions you may have had since second grade. If you have
any other fun questions, please post them here and I'll do my best to find some
fun cosmic answers.
CR4 Aerospace Blog
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Re: Your Cosmic Questions Answered (Part 2)
