The University of Texas at Arlington

Today's Moon Phase

Summer Public Show Schedule

Our summer schedule is effective May 28th - August 25th. For shows and showtimes before this date, please see our Spring Schedule.

Tuesdays

• 2:00 - Texas Stargazing
• 3:00 - Spacepark 360

Wednesdays

• 2:00 - We Are Astronomers

Thursdays

• 2:00 - One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure
• 3:00 - Spacepark 360

Fridays

• 2:00 - TimeSpace

Saturdays

• 1:00 - One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure
• 2:30 - TimeSpace
• 5:30 - We Are Astronomers
• 7:00 - Pink Floyd

Sundays

• 1:30 - Secret of the Cardboard Rocket
• 2:30 - Spacepark 360

• The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) scientists mentioned the Moon's craters that have ice in them are probably charged up by static electricity from interacting with the solar wind. Is there a way to measure the voltage from some probe or other?
• This might be a good one to try to send to the LRO scientists because this will be depend on the amount of ice, as well as electromagnetic field strength caused by the solar wind. Unfortunately, static electricity can’t be measured by probes unless the voltage carrying medium is grounded and discharged. For example, we can’t measure the static electric voltage building up in clouds. However, if we knew the amount of current that was transmitted to a lightning rod by the cloud, then we would be able to estimate the amount of static electricity carried in the cloud just before the lightning.
• Can we experience weightlessness near a black hole?
• I don’t think that you would feel weightless around a black hole, because the difference in gravity between your head and feet is so great that you will be stretched into a long thin string. Even if you can get into a fast orbit around the black hole that would attempt to balance the gravitational forces, creating a free fall situation (exactly the same situation the astronauts have around Earth) you would still feel this stretching on your body. Some astronomers like to call this stretching effect, spaghettification, because it stretches you into a thin piece of spaghetti. You will eventually become stretched so much, that the bonds holding your atoms together will break, so it won’t be you that enters the black hole, but the protons, neutrons and electrons that make you up.
• How long would it take to get to Venus going 60 miles per hour?
• Venus’s distance from Earth varies depending on where each planet it is its orbit around the Sun. The closest that Venus ever gets to Earth is 23.6 million miles. That means that it would take 44.9 years to reach Venus travelling at 60 mph!
• Has NASA spotted an exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri a and b and proxima centauri?
• Yes! A planet, known as Alpha Centauri Bb, was discovered orbiting around Alpha Centauri B, which is part of a three-star system just 4.3 light-years away from us. Alpha Centauri Bb zips around its star every 3.2 days, orbiting at a distance of just 3.6 million miles (6 million kilometers) and is approximately the same size as Earth. For comparison, Earth orbits about 93 million miles, or 150 million km, from the sun.

View more and submit your own questions to Ask the Astronomer

Today: Tue, May 21, 2013

Today's Events

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Now Showing

Sunday
01:30 pm	Astronaut
02:30 pm	Spacepark 360
Thursday
06:00 pm	Astronaut
Friday
06:00 pm	Mayan Prophecies
Saturday
01:00 pm	Cosmic Colors
02:30 pm	Mayan Prophecies
05:30 pm	Astronaut
07:00 pm	Pink Floyd

Astronaut

See what it takes to become an Astronaut and the effect space has on the human body.

Cosmic Colors

Take an adventure along the spectrum and discover the world of color.

Mayan Prophecies

Visit the Classic Mayan cities of Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Tikal, and Palenque to discover how the Maya aligned their temples to watch their sky gods and used interlocking calendars to record the past and predict the future.

Pink Floyd

Enjoy a 60's style laser light show set to the music of Pink Floyd.

Spacepark 360

Spacepark 360 is an out-of-this-world entertainment experience. Get transported to surreal vistas and experience the most thrilling amusement park rides the solar system has to offer!