Answered Questions

As the average 15 year old I find it difficult to understand your answers about the so called 2012 doomsday. I have heard many theories one saying that the U.S project Philladelphia or something traveled into the future and there was nothing left in 2012 the earth was destroyed. Could you give me the simple answer are we or are we not going to die in 2012 I would rather take my own life than suffer a doomsday. ..AND.. hello I am really scared with the news that the world is going to end on 12 21 2012....I have been looking it up to try to find some information that is from a valuable source. Please help me!!!!

I received these two questions within a few minutes of each other, and they make me angry at the liars and fools who keep posting claims of a 2012 doomsday. Nothing will happen in 2012. There is no planet Nibiru, no planet alignment, no crossing the celestial equator, no change... More

For almost a year now, my husband and I have noticed a bright star (unsure if it can be classified as a star) in the sky that seems like it gets brighter and brighter as the evenings pass. We're now noticing it in the southeast skies after 9 or 10pm pst. I've been searching the internet to see if anyone knows what it is. Some speculate it's Venus or Mercury. Some say it's a satellite. So, what could it be? And why does it seem like it's getting brighter and brighter?

You have been seeing Jupiter, which is now near opposition (and hence at its brightest because it is closest to the Earth). I am curious about your account of searching the Internet and finding conflicting suggestions. It is easy to find the positions of the planets, for instance at the... More

I've just found out about something called WR 104, which is worrying me, can you explain this and help me out?

Don’t worry about WR 104; I will explain why in a moment. Your question is like others I receive, often several per day, that express a kind of cosmophobia — a fear of the cosmos. News stories about astronomical events are triggering widespread worry: fear of asteroid impacts, fear... More

Which planetarium in California allows me to view Planet X?

A planetarium is a device for projecting star fields and astronomical photos on the inside of a dome. It does not allow you to view anything other that the material that has been programmed into the show. I don’t think you will see “Planet X” included in current planetarium... More

We all hear exciting news about newly discovered exoplanets every week or so. I was wondering if Nasa plans to point some kind of big ears in the direction of these planets. I know Seti is searching the whole sky, but I guess it would probably be more efficient to search where we know there are planets.

There are now more than 350 known exoplanets, but so far no evidence that any are habitable. Almost all are giant planets, many either close to their star (hence very hot) or on highly elliptical orbits. Thus these are not very likely candidates for SETI searches. Once the Kepler mission... More

As dumb as earthlings are, how could we translate a message from other beings received by SETI? Also, what do you think they would try and tell us?

This is an excellent question, and one to which there is no clear technical answer. Please remember, however, that the sensitivity of current SETI searches is probably insufficient to pick up leakage — that is, to eavesdrop on the internal communications of another world. Such overheard conversations would probably not... More

dear sir,do u think human beings r the last evolution on planet earth,and why did the evolution stopped after we became humans?

Evolution has not stopped; it it happening all around us. The most obvious examples are in the evolution of drug resistant bacteria; this can happen in just a decade or two. We see the effects of evolution most clearly, of course, in populations (like bacteria) that reproduce quickly, so that... More

i was on the national geographic website and they said that in 2012 we are suppose to have the biggest solar storms in history. In the movie they said a solar flare would incinerate earth. I understand there's solar activity every 11 years ...but in the movie flares from the sun incinerated earth ...could that really happen?

A lot of people are asking about predictions of an unusually intense solar maximum 3 years from now. There is a huge amount of hype on the Internet, most of which (judging by the first 50 listings when I google “solar maximum 2012”) is inaccurate and irresponsible. Let’s look at... More

I've read that there is persistent irregularities in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune suggest some kind of mystery object is really there What is the main reason behind it?? is there any existance of dark star there ??

Irregularities (that is, departures from predictions) in the orbit of Uranus were used to predict the position of Neptune in the 18940s (see the Wikipedia article on the discovery of Neptune). Additional but much smaller departures of Uranus led to predictions of the existence of Pluto, but they turned out... More

I think it is well to assume that if it was confirmed by any government that an asteroid, planet, or any other ominous life ending event were approaching or even COULD approach... that society as we know it could likely breakdown. People would stop going to work, there would be riots, mass suicides, technology would collapse. So I think that in order to avoid total chaos (we all know what happned even as a result of a 1953 radio publication 'War of the Worlds'), governments might withhold information to prevent panic.

You have stated the standard rationale for withholding information very well. However, the facts don’t support this. The sort of mass panic you describe is common in Hollywood films but bears little relationship to the way people really behave in extreme circumstances. Consider, for example, the response of the population... More