Astronomy & Space - April 2007

Friday night (March 30th, 2007) at around 11:00pm I saw an aircraft in the distance with what looked like a search light on it (like searchlights on helicopters). I noticed that it was an airplane, but the light was focused on one spot while the plane kept flying across the sky. That one spot happened to be on the brightest star in the sky that night that I could see (in the Los Angeles area, no less). The star was about 30 degrees up in the sky at that time. It appeared to be South-West of where I was.
Are there planes that for some reason shine a light on a star?? (That would seem counterintuitive to me.) Or could it have been some kind of reflection or shadow or something? I watched the plane for at least 4 minutes as it passed overhead and out of view, the whole time I could see the light accross the sky.
Any ideas? I searched all kind of astronomy websites and couldn't find anything.

2007-04-04 11:22:52 · 3 answers · asked by A P 1

I recently heard about this hypothesis by Ronald Mallet, in which lasers are used to warp the fabric of space to create a time loop. Do you think he will be successful? Why or why not?

Link for a detailed description of his experiment: http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html

2007-04-04 10:33:04 · 5 answers · asked by gryphen 5

to the right of orion halfway up the sky tonite there is a huge star - what is it a planet or a star?

2007-04-04 10:15:06 · 23 answers · asked by olivier1uk 3

The moon appears to be exactly the same size as the sun--when there is an eclipse of the sun you can see this. It seems unlikely that this is by chance--is there some natural law to explain it?

2007-04-04 10:06:30 · 12 answers · asked by 2kool4u 5

just curious...
and yes i know that the background radiates at 4 Kelvin ;)
what defines heat ?

2007-04-04 10:06:24 · 12 answers · asked by blondnirvana 5

I must admit I don't follow the global warming issues very much, so I am not an expert. I just briefly read an article about Mars going through global warming. So I just had a thought...is it possible that the earth's global warming is part of what's going on in the solar system as a whole? Please provide your comments.

2007-04-04 09:53:08 · 13 answers · asked by zyummyz 2

we're constantly talking about going to the moon or mars to one day establish colonies there. is it possible that thousands of years ago people on mars thought the same thing and came here to colonize earth. would this explain us better than evolution? and every month now it seems theres something new coming out about mars?

p.s. i know the question posed is misleading but i wanted a ot of ppl to look at and provide comments...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6461201.stm

2007-04-04 09:43:40 · 7 answers · asked by scauma 2

The current belief about the origin of our Moon is that



a. It was created as the Earth was, at the same time, out of the material that was in the same vicinity.

b. It was created from material hurled off the quickly rotating Earth.

c. It was captured by the Earths gravity.

d. It was created by an impact of a Mars-sized planet and that debris from the impact formed the Moon.

2007-04-04 09:30:50 · 8 answers · asked by sy 2

It also appeared the same colour last night, though this time it wasn't eclipsed. Confused!

2007-04-04 08:53:25 · 15 answers · asked by purplepeace59 5

2007-04-04 08:52:26 · 10 answers · asked by psychoholiday1976 3

2007-04-04 08:42:41 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous

Which of the following is not a characteristic of the Jovian planets?



a. Their orbits are separated by relatively large distances.

b. They all have rings.

c. They have very few, if any, satellites.

d. They are primarily made of hydrogen and helium.

e. They are all large balls of gas.

2007-04-04 08:40:22 · 5 answers · asked by sy 2

2007-04-04 08:30:16 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous

Do you really think they have visited us sometime? any photos or stories about it? What do you think they would look like?

2007-04-04 08:19:49 · 12 answers · asked by Golden 2

We watch TV in 2D but everything around us is in 3D. When we go to a 3D IMAX movie it freaks us out! Does staring at moving 2D images negatively affect our brains?

2007-04-04 08:04:23 · 9 answers · asked by Julia 3

2007-04-04 07:48:11 · 13 answers · asked by wow 2

Could someone explain to me the theory of 'time travelling' in a nutshell (if that's possible) please?

2007-04-04 07:32:37 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-04-04 07:26:22 · 8 answers · asked by chrisbrown 1

2007-04-04 07:24:47 · 5 answers · asked by thyplo101 2

Astronomers measure large distance in the solar system in Astronomical Units (A.U.) The distance of the earth to the sun is about 93 million miles or 1 A.U.

2007-04-04 06:57:10 · 4 answers · asked by eava2005 1

How can a fire burning in the freezing space?

Was the Sun a planet or a rock or just a fireball?

What about the stars? Why the stars burn out and
become falling stars?

If the Sun is a big Star, will it burn out
and become falling star?

2007-04-04 06:50:19 · 12 answers · asked by Jagger Otto 7

OK so this is what I was thinking a couple days ago, please shoot me down if I'm completely wrong...

If our universe is supposed to end with everything getting sucked into a singularity.....and a singularity blowing up is how everything began, than can there have been multiple universes before our big bang? Like everything gets sucked in, then blown up, then sucked in again??

2007-04-04 06:45:08 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-04-04 05:43:24 · 4 answers · asked by jolly dolly 2

Not anyone's homework.

Thanks for patience and help.

2007-04-04 05:36:37 · 2 answers · asked by Dovey 7

mine is pretty simple, space is a vacuum right, so if we can send a giant tube in space the asteroid should stick right to it, then if we build a machine (attached to the tube on earth) powerful enough we can move it away from earth. Any other ideas u would suggest?

2007-04-04 05:05:33 · 12 answers · asked by StealthShadow 4

(i know our earth is consider to be a big magnet)

2007-04-04 04:26:04 · 5 answers · asked by sivaprakash1984 1

Can anyone give me a meteorite as souvenir? Or at least can suggest where I can have one.
I decided to present my wife with one on our silver anniversary.

2007-04-04 04:05:34 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-04-04 04:00:59 · 4 answers · asked by miss congeniality 2

related to the universe

2007-04-04 03:41:20 · 6 answers · asked by Anish Saha 1

2007-04-04 03:30:12 · 8 answers · asked by Landon L 1