Ask An Astronomer Anything At All About Astronomy (XXIX)

Endless questions ! Surely by now we've covered everything ? No ? Fine...


1) Could Sagittarius A* be a white hole ?
Hah ! No chance. Dream on, loser.

2) Could the Big Bang be a white hole ?
Yes, but it could also be a magical wizard.

3) Is the most spherical planet the one that's the most massive ?
That's right, it's yo momma.

4) Why didn't the light from the Big Bang pass us by as the Universe expanded ?
Because we smell terrible.

5) Is the "total energy of the Universe is zero" statement a bit of creative accounting ?
I'd say so.

6) If Andromeda were to go nova, how much would it affect the Milky Way ?
That's un-possible.

7) Why do you want physics to be broken ?
I dunno, why do you want your face to be broken ?

8) What's the truth behind Nibiru ?
IT'S ALL TRUE ! ALL OF IT ! EVEN THE PARTS THAT CONTRADICT THE OTHER PARTS ! WE IS ALL GONNA DIIIIIE !!!!

9) Could Venus not be having a super-greenhouse effect but just cooling down from some recent catastrophe ?
I dunno, but defining "recent" and "catastrophe" would help.

10) How can we improve communications to robotic spacecraft ?
By shouting more loudly from a taller hill.


Also I made a correction to one previous answer :
Q : If black holes and white holes have the same gravity, doesn't that mean they're the same thing ?
My original answer was that whites hole have anti-gravity. This is completely wrong. They're actually time-reversed black holes, apparently. The answer to the question is that no, they're not the same thing but only because general relativity is bloody complicated. I won't pretend to understand the details, so I'll be rather more careful with white hole questions in future.

Added some more information to another previous question :
Q : Could rogue stars be parts of mostly dark matter galaxies ?
It seems that some people think so. Personally I'm skeptical - it would be extremely hard to prove that these isolated stars are really embedded in dark matter halos since you can't measure a rotation curve for just a few stars. Which means the idea is very hard to disprove, and when you start allowing ideas that can't be disproven you're in very dangerous territory. I don't say it's impossible, but I'd need further convincing.