Recent content by Tropo

I guess your name fits!

The moon provides a stabilizing influence on the Earth's axial tilt (obliquity). With the moon in place where it is, our tilt, which is currently at 23.5°, moves between only 21.5 and 24.5° about every 41,000 years. This cycle used to be in synch with ice ages, but it hasn't been for the past...

I've wondered about this too. If you look down at the solar system from the north, the planets go around the sun in a CCW direction and most planets, such as Earth, rotate in a CCW direction from that view. But, it seems that when the planets accreted, material inside the orbit is going...

H and He can't become solid inside a gas giant because they are above their critical temperature.

As you descend into the atmosphere of Jupiter, you'll encounter the cloudtops at right around 1 atm (coincidence). The temperature there is way cold, about 160 K. Over the next 100 km or so, the temperature inceases at about 2 K/km but the pressure is building up as well. The atmosphere is...

It was a wash-out here in NW Arkansas. Between 3:00 and 3:30, I only saw 2 against a fairly dark sky.

The elements we have here on good 'ol planet Earth come from one of three sources: nucleosynthysis during the big bang ---produced H and He (75% by weight of H) ---a trace of D and Li nucleosynthysis in stars ---this makes elements up to Fe nucleosynthysis in supernovas ---this makes...

The bands are due to a combination of heat transport from the equator to the poles and the planet's rotation. If a planet with an atmosphere does not rotate, then this heat transfer will occur by having winds establish themselves that blow from the equator to both poles at high altitudes, they...