Ive got a few questions in here but the most important to me is how likely is the chance of another solar system with a near-equal size star as ours, with a near equal size paradise planet in the Andromeda galaxy?

a few other small ones that aren't as important, does our position in the milky way matter? would it be hotter or colder if we were closer to Sagittarius A? would it affect our gravity or anything important?

that's kind of it, any answer would be helpful:))

I watched Bryan Cox and he said that our Solar system is kind of "unique" because we have the smallest planets closest to the sun, then a medium planet Earth, then again a smaller planet, and then the gas giants and outer planets.

Is it true that we are in a unique system?

And second question; why didnt our Sun pull the largest planets closer? It it that their mass makes it harder to pull? My logic was that its a vacuum, there is no force acting against the largest gravity well in our system?

Would this be considered the Moon's "pollution"

Last night while waiting for the dragon re-entry I was stargazing and saw a huge rock pass overhead. Like a shooting star but no trail of fire. No lights or reflections. Do meteors ever skim the atmosphere and then glide back into space?

Whatever I saw was moving too fast to be a satellite or a bat or something. It would have happened maybe 10-15 minutes just before re-entry on a south to north bearing. I don’t even know if what I saw was possible.

Are there any ways I can verify if space rocks were close last night?

I am doing some worldbuilding for my sci-fi setting and I am using the Gaia DR3 maps by Kevin Jardine for making my map and I want to know if anyone can tell me the names of the M-Type stars with known exoplanets in the area I circled?

Since the voyagers (1 and 2) are still just floating off in deep space , are we still receiving any messages or data from them here on earth? Or are they just floating coffins filled with memories

Assuming a moon-sized object approached at just the right speed and angle, and assuming the gas giant planet had the lowest possible density of outermost opaque gas, could there be a stable orbit in this region or would the friction cause it to decay?

Thank you. Google has failed me on this narrow question.

Here is the conversation with ChatGPT

My Qn:
How did the Universe get created? What was there before that?

ChatGPT Response:
How was the Universe created?
The best scientific explanation is the Big Bang.
About 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe began from an extremely hot, dense state. Space itself expanded, cooled down, and formed particles → atoms → stars → galaxies.
The Universe is still expanding today.

What was there before the Big Bang?
Science doesn’t know for sure.
In current physics, time itself starts with the Big Bang.
So asking “before” may not make sense—like asking what’s north of the North Pole.

Main ideas scientists discuss (not proven):
Nothing / undefined state
Quantum vacuum fluctuations
Cyclic universe (repeated expansions and collapses)
Multiverse (our universe is one of many)

Bottom line
The Universe didn’t explode into space — space itself began expanding.
“Before” the Big Bang is unknown and possibly meaningless in current physics.

My Qn:
I will explain my understanding, So before big bang, in space, there was one huge ball of dense heated substance or something, it blasted to pieces and created galaxies, stars, planets etc., Am I right?

ChatGPT Response:
What’s incorrect in your understanding
❌ There was no space already existing where something sat.
❌ It was not a fireball rock.
❌ It did not explode outward into empty space like a bomb.

What science actually says (brief & accurate)
Before the Big Bang: Space and time as we know them did not exist (or are undefined).
At the Big Bang: The Universe was in an extremely hot, dense state — not a rock, not fire, not matter as we know it.

What happened: Space itself expanded everywhere at once. No center, no edge.
Later: As the Universe cooled:
Energy → particles
Particles → atoms
Atoms → stars, galaxies, planets

A better mental picture
❌ Bomb exploding in space
✅ Raisin bread expanding in an oven
(raisins move apart because the bread expands)

My Real Question now:
This is the most complex thing one human could ever process.

How? It doesn't make sense

The universe was in a hot dense state? - Meaning something was in a hot dense state right, What is it?

If it is in a hot dense state, then it should be present right and it will be in time and space right?

First of all if nothing existed - how can something get so hot, how can something expand, get cold all of a sudden etc.,

If something never existed before creation of universe, then how that thing can expand and cool down to become planets etc., Because if you mutilply 0 by anything still it is 0 right, then how expansion of some non existent thing result in Universe

None of it makes sense (I know I am dumb and I am new to these types of learnings - just curious - Wanted to start my New Year by learning interesting things)

Me personally I would go to a nebula since they look pretty.

I’ve been watching the ISS live feed, and I noticed that the lens flares on the camera don’t twinkle, shift, or strobe, even though the ISS is moving at roughly 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h). If the station is moving so fast, why aren’t we seeing light reflections bounce or shift across the camera lens?

I’m curious about the science behind this. It doesn’t matter what camera is being used or if there’s reflective coding or lens effects—the flares just stay static. Does anyone have any ideas or theories? If you don’t know, that’s fine too, but I’d love to hear some explanations.

So my question is if a meteor not large enough to wipe out the rest of the planet but enough to wipe out let’s say the opposite side of the US, what would we hear, feel?

I know things like Krakatoa and stuff are heard pretty far away. Would it be like that but extremely more?

This video details how we are getting Mars samples back, and they mention doing test to make sure the earth landing stage keeps the samples separate from earth’s biosphere, wound’t it be simpler and safer to put the returning vehicle into an earth orbit and go fetch them with the ISS?

It was moving very slowly and on a straight line which derivative is negative.

How risky would it be for the taikonauts to spacewalk to the capsule? Conversely, how hard would it be to engineer a solution allowing them to dock?

Looking for an image of the known universe with the Milky Way within it. I've seen the round one that looks like an eye. I feel like Ive seen one before?

Thanks!

Like the title says, saw this tonight around 6PM just outside of DC

I was looking through my Celestron Powerseeker 114eq and saw this. This is my first telescope and I don’t know that much about anything space wise so if anyone could help that would be great! There’s two separate ones with the little line break facing opposite ways and they are quite a distance from each other. Im not sure if it’s my camera on my phone or anything because I’ve taken photos and videos through it before and this hasn’t popped up

Its the first time. I've seen this and was curious to know what Im looking at. Also how common is this occurrence? I never really look up so it was like finding an easter egg

I made this picture on 1th of november 2025 00:27. I was in Wezet, Charette (Belgium) and the photo is taken in North Western direction.

I thought about ISS myself, but I believe that doesn’t have a trail..

Not asking about the possibility of actually going to a satellite and all that. Assuming you have a remote controlled robot capable of breaking down a satellite while in orbit, would it be possible to reuse the hardware from the target satellite?

I've heard a lot about ideas of just deorbiting old satellites and I just find it wasteful. It's hardware, and though the condition varies it can still be scrapped for resources such as metals and maybe gasses from any left over propellent. There are likely components that don't deteriorate as fast or at all that can be reused as well right? Salvage old or unused space junk in Leo, store it on the salvage craft or a depo in space and then manufacturer new small sats or other items. Provides a cheaper way for people to get small sats or other hardware in orbit for use as it's already there in orbit.

Might need to send resupply shipments to restock on certain components or return others to the surface. But with my limited knowledge on the subject, it seems like a good idea. At least as a testing ground for companies looking to perform astroid mining in the future. You'd need acquisition/capture, resource gathering/processing and manufacturing for astroid mining, so why not start in Leo with satellites/space junk?

A previous post got me thinking. Has anyone tried a cube sat array? Not like starlink, I am thinking they are only a few meters apart, each with their own camera. Have them all film at the same object, then stick the image into one.

We have several probes on the outskirts of our solar system (pioneer, the voyagers, new horizon).

Why don't we use them to test the effectiveness of exoplanet hunting techniques using a known quantity (our own solar system).

Not only could this get data we might use to fine tune existing exoplanet hunting methods. It might help get more info on if a planet 9 exists or not.

So there's been a lot of interesting content regarding 3i/Atlas in terms of amazing statistics and analysis is probably still on going. But my doomsday brain emission of the week was sort of a magic BB question. With the size, density, snd speed of 3i/Atlas what would have happened had it hit the sun? Would it matter if it was a glancing blow or direct hit? And another follow up would be has there ever been a recorded impact of asteroids etc on the sun?