Ask An Astronomer Anything At All About Astronomy (XXV)

Time for more questions.

1) Who can explain to me why Einstein was trying to find the Gravitational constant of the universe ?
Me.

2) I thought G was the sum total of all the gravity in the universe. Regardless of the fluctuations of force.
You thought wrong.

3) So the force that holds the planets in orbit and keeps the moons orbiting the planets is the weakest force ?
Yes. Gravity's only strong when there's an immense amount of mass. Like your mum.

4)  What do you think of this meme about a void in space ? Is this the same region that was used for the Hubble Deep Field ?
It's awful.

5) How about these space facts, eh ?
Sure, yeah. "Facts".

6) What's it called when you live in a binary star system and one star occults the other? Is it still an eclipse ?
Yes.

7) I read that there is a planet which orbits two suns. I don't remember the name, but what is the closest two suns can be together without colliding? I imagine it depends on the size too...
Tatooine. And they can touch without coalescing, which is nice.

8) Out of curiosity, wouldn't an advanced civilisation capable of warp speed travel be able to explore the unobservable universe ?
Sure, but the unobservable parts aren't going to be anything special.

9) Why do galaxy-sized turbulent gas clouds look spiky ?
They can if they want to. Stop judging their lifestyle choices.