1547: Solar System Questions

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Solar System Questions

Title text: My country's World Cup win was exciting and all, but c'mon, what if the players wore nylon wings and COULD LITERALLY FLY?

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT - single answer then added by a human. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This comic is a list of questions which Randall has about the Solar System, which at first glance may appear to be things that Randall would like to learn about. In actual fact most of the questions have not been satisfactorily answered or proven by anyone in the scientific community.

Question given	Answer given by Randall (in Red)	Comments
Why is the the Moon so blotchy?	Lava	The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, which means that we always can see only one half of the surface of the Moon. And on that side we can see large lunar mare formed by lava from big volcanoes. This surface is very different to all other celestial bodies we know in our Solar system. The double "the the" could be a Randallism — intended or unintended.
Why are all the blotches on the near side?	...	The nearside of the Moon is dominated by the blotchy 'seas' or maria, the far side by craters. Several explanations for this have been proposed, including an overabundance of impacts obliterating the blotches on the more exposed far side, different compositions of heat-producing elements, large collisions, or heat produced by the still-cooling Earth.
Did Mars have seas?	Yes (briefly?)	Recent explorations have confirmed there was once standing and also floating water, but not yet that long. Many rovers and orbiters on Mars give us the evidence on this early development of that planet.
Was there life on Mars?	...	One of the big mysteries, not yet answered.
What's Titan like?	Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)	The Cassini–Huygens mission confirmed the presence of lakes and rivers on Titan. The Huygens lander itself returned some very yellow images of a dry lake bed from Titan's surface.
What was Earth like during the Hadean?	...	The Hadean was the first geologic era on earth, the planet had just formed and it's not much known of that period of Earth.
Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?	...	The Oort Cloud is a theoretical spherical cloud of icy planetesimal, maybe dust, and also larger objects at a distance of up to around 100,000 AU to our Sun. We can see similar clouds at other stars, but there is still no evidence that this cloud exists in our Solar System.
Why is the Sun's corona so hot?	Something about magnets?	The corona of the sun is hotter than it theoretically should be. The looping magnetic fields in this area could be responsible.
What are comets like?	Precipitous	The Philae lander is next to a cliff...
Where's Philae, exactly?	...	...but we're not sure which cliff.
What's Pluto like?	[Soon!]	The probe New Horizons may be about to answer both of these questions.
What's Charon like?
Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?	...	There is a size-gap between the rocky planets up to Earth size and the gas giants much larger than Earth.
What's Ceres like?	[Working on it!]	The Dawn probe is currently exploring the Dwarf Planet Ceres and reveals unseen surface features.
Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty?	Ice over a water ocean	Europa is a moon of Jupiter and the surface is basically thick pack ice covered in lineae.
Why is Io so weird-looking?	Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)	The moon IO is also orbiting Jupiter and is close enough that tidal forces make it the most volcanic object in the solar system. The bright red color comes from from sulfur which is ejected by the volcanoes.
Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?	...	Many objects in the Kuiper Belt have a reddish hue. A possible explanation is that they are covered in organic molecules formed by the irradiation of their surface ices. The New Horizons probe might also shed light on this.
What are those spots on Ceres?	...	Ceres
What's in the seas under Europa's ice?	...	Europa
Which of the other moons have seas?	Several	(Partial/initial list possible? Definition of 'seas' would affect this.)
What are the big white things in Titan's Lakes?	...	Lakes of Titan
What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?	...
What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?	...
What's pushing the Pioneer Probes?	Heat from the RTG	Discussed as the Pioneer anomaly. RTG stands for Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator.
What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?	...	The related Flyby anomaly.
Where are all the Sun's Neutrinos?	Oscillating	Solar neutrino problem
Why is there so much air on Titan?	...
Why does the Kuiper Belt Stop?	...	A reference to the Kuiper Cliff.
Why is Iapetus weird-colored?	...	Iapetus (moon) is a moon of Saturn and has a white side and a dark side.
Why does Iapetus have a belt?	...	It also has a mountain chain along the equator.
What's the deal with Miranda?	...	Miranda is the smallest of Uranus's five round satellites, and it's a bit rough around the edges. Also possibly a Firefly reference since Miranda is the name of a planet in Serenity, a film in the Firefly series.
Did Uranus and Neptune change places?	...	The Nice model is a theory of how our solar system formed, which suggested the possibility of Uranus and Neptune having swapped places before reaching their current positions. Work by Professor S. Desch also came to this result.
Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?	...
Did life start before it?	...
Is Europa covered in Ice Spikes?	...
Why haven't we built a big inflatable Extreme Sports Complex on The Moon?	...	See, e.g., The Menace From Earth, a 1957 short story by Robert Heinlein.

The title text refers to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup which was won by USA a day before. The nylon wings and flying may be a reference to two passages from 3001: The Final Odyssey, one where Frank Poole tries out various wings while in an extremely low gravity environment, and one where he remarks while watching Swan Lake that Tchaikovsky could never have imagined a performance where the dancers were actually flying (due to aforementioned low gravity).

Transcript

Questions I have

about the solar system

(some answered)

Why is the the Moon so blotchy?	Lava
Why are all the blotches on the near side?
Did Mars have seas?	Yes (briefly?)
Was there life on Mars?
What's Titan like?	Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)
What was Earth like during the Hadean?
Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?
Why is the Sun's corona so hot?	Something about magnets?
What are comets like?	Precipitous
Where's Philae, exactly?
What's Pluto like?	[Soon!]
What's Charon like?
Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?
What's Ceres like?	[Working on it!]
Why is Europa so wierd-looking and pretty?	Ice over a water ocean
Why is Io so weird-looking?	Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)
Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?
What are those spots on Ceres?
What's in the seas under Europa's ice?
Which of the other moons have seas?	Several
What are the big white things in Titan's Lakes?
What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?
What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?
What's pushing the Pioneer Probes?	Heat from the RTG
What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?
Where are all the Sun's Neutrinos?	Oscillating
Why is there so much air on Titan?
Why does the Kuiper Belt Stop?
Why is Iapetus weird-colored?
Why does Iapetus have a belt?
What's the deal with Miranda?
Did Uranus and Neptune change places?
Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?
Did life start before it?
Is Europa covered in ice spikes?
Why haven't we build a big inflatable extreme sports complex on the moon?

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Discussion

I wonder if "What's the deal with Miranda?" is talking about one of Uranus's satellites or if it's a Firefly/Serenity reference? Keavon (talk) 15:31, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

• That was my reaction too. Randall is (as he should be) slightly obsessed with Firefly. Cosmogoblin (talk) 19:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)
  • There are other Mirandas... Miranda Sings, Miranda Hobbes, etc. Smperron (talk) 13:36, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
    • Given that the title of the comic is "Solar System Questions", and Miranda in firefly is not in the solar system, this is clearly a reference to the Uranus moon. Niffe 00:09, 10 July, 2015
      • If it's a reference to Miranda from Sex And The City, it's still a valid question. 108.162.241.8 12:42, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Many of the entries can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics Cschwenz (talk) 16:16, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

The title text is a reference to the Futurama episode "Butterjunk effect" http://theinfosphere.org/The_Butterjunk_Effect. 188.114.98.29 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

• I suggest it's much more likely to be a reference to Randall's own obsession with humans flying with wings: 620, https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/. 108.162.250.161 01:00, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

What's Titan like? Refernece to Gattaca (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZa83dTf4JA)? The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22 (talk) 16:23, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

I wonder if Randal is using us as unpaid researchers to answer his questions for him?173.245.48.89 16:53, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

• Crowd-sourcing space probes? I certainly hope so!! Cosmogoblin (talk) 19:12, 6 July 2015 (UTC)
  • I was also thinking that, or at least he might have been thinking, "This oughtta keep those silly people on the ExplainXKCD wiki busy!". ;) KieferSkunk (talk) 20:42, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Timing is good as it has recently been shown that red organics (Tholins) are produced by the particular UV wavelength called 'Lyman-Alpha' which is almost as bright on Pluto's night-side due to starshine as it is from the Sun during its daytime... the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt may be the original Red-light District. Go New Horizons! Squirreltape (talk) 15:13, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

Ice Spikes could be a reference to the Ice Spikes biome in Minecraft: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Ice_Plains_Spikes.png Daedalus (talk) 10:12, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

The last question/the title text could also refer to Robert A. Heinleins "The Menace from Earth": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menace_from_Earth Bichlesi (talk) 01:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

The "big white things in Titan's lakes" may also refer to the magic islands that were observed by Cassini.--108.162.221.90 02:56, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

If they wore wings and could fly you would end up with the Butterfly Derby on the moon from the Futurama Episode "The Butterjunk Effect" 108.162.216.146 06:23, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Ideas about the "What pushes spaceships slightly during flybys?": (1) Gravity is slightly stronger near the equator due to the faster relative motion of the planet surface (which is why the plane of orbits of moons, planets, rings, galaxies try to align near the equator of the central mass). (2) Earth's mass is not 100% evenly distributed within it's volume causing minor gravitational distortions. (3) Flybys "behind" the Earth as it moves in its orbit gravitationally slow the Earth (very very slightly) robbing it of KE and giving it to the craft. Flybys "in front" of the Earth in orbit do the reverse. - Ezfzx (talk) 17:46, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

I think this page, perhaps more than any I've run across so far, can really use a few more sets of eyes. I would even suggest that the page is incomplete, because of all the new science we've done in the past decade. It would be nice if we could label the status of these questions. "Which other moons have seas" answer is clearly incomplete, as it doesn't list "several" contenders. Maplestrip (talk) 10:41, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

I just added the color-coded column, which might be of interest and helpful when looking at this as a checklist. Maplestrip (talk) 11:02, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, anonymous IP editor, for adding so much information to this page! That was exactly what I was hoping when I marked this page as incomplete, and it's amazing to see how much new knowledge we've gained in the past decade. The floating islands of Titan particularly wowed me. I'm beyond pleased! Maplestrip (talk) 13:23, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

Why are so many Things where there is clearly absolutely no answer give not marked as no, but either partly, maybe, or even yes? how did this happen? -- Xkcd explainer (talk) 08:09, 15 May 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Please change those items to "no" if you are unhappy with the answer given. I'm not entirely happy with some of the answers too, but I gave a few of them the benefit of the doubt. A "no" in this chart is an invitation for people to find better answers! Maplestrip (talk) 12:01, 15 May 2024 (UTC)