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Unanswered Questions

304 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
10 votes
0 answers
214 views

How well conserved is etendue in extreme gravitational lensing scenarios?

This excellent answer to Could dark matter exist in the Universe in the form of sufficiently dense objects? includes the following image and description: Light from the background galaxy circles a ...
7 votes
0 answers
256 views

Get the expression of probed volume between 2 redshifts

1) I can't manage to find/justify the relation (1) below, from the common relation (2) of a volume. 2) It seems the variable r is actually the comoving distance and not comoving coordinates (with ...
7 votes
0 answers
315 views

Gravitational eddies across the galaxy?

I read about natural gravitational eddies that travel in a wave that black holes have. They also have a strong magnetic field. Does those eddies follow magnetic field lines of the rotating black hole? ...
6 votes
0 answers
99 views

How many galaxies are currently merging?

On the homepage of the galaxies research group at CfA SAO, it states, "Astronomers discovered that as many as 25% of galaxies are currently merging with others." They do not provide a ...
6 votes
0 answers
130 views

Kepler ellipse orbit fit issues

I am helping my high schooler with a research paper that uses PyAstronomy to fit the orbit of stars around Sag A. It isn't working because the angles (parameters Omega, omega, and i) seem to have a ...
6 votes
0 answers
170 views

Are there any planetary ring system other than "Phoebe ring" not aligned to the equatorial plane?

Continuation of: Is it possible for planetary rings to be perpendicular (or near perpendicular) to the planet's orbit around the host star? The answers discussed about Uranian ring system and how ...
6 votes
0 answers
219 views

Kepler - Creating the Ellipse (Astronomia Nova)

In Chapter 58 in Astronomia Nova, Kepler made his final step to finally create the ellipse (for the orbit of planets) http://science.larouchepac.com/kepler/newastronomy/part4/58/index.html In the ...
6 votes
0 answers
150 views

Semimajor axis variations in co-orbital moons

I've been playing with simulations of co-orbital bodies similar to Saturn's moons Janus & Epimetheus- horseshoe orbits where the two bodies are of comparable mass- and I'm seeing some very odd ...
5 votes
0 answers
180 views

Why does the tropical year have a ~161 years cycle?

Using PyEphem, I calculated the time difference between consecutive summer solstices in the south hemisphere for the last 4000 years, and plotted them in a graph. It seems like random noise around the ...
5 votes
0 answers
70 views

Do all the accretion disks around a compact object (black hole or neutron star) emit astrophysical jet outflow?

Do all the accretion disks around a compact object (black hole or neutron star) emit astrophysical jet outflow? I mean is it mandatory for a jet to be emitted from an accretion disk? If so, then why? ...
5 votes
0 answers
86 views

Did the density wave theory for spiral arms take account of this phenomenon?

I came across this link. In it the author speculates that in the outer region of a galaxy, the spiral arms overtake the stars, and vice versa for the inner region. That means there must be a middle ...
5 votes
0 answers
88 views

Significantly blueshifted Lyman-$\alpha$

Lyman-$\alpha$ line in galaxies is notably known to show a double peaked profile, mainly due to its scattering in a moving medium, see e.g., the very recent Matthee et al. 2021, The X-SHOOTER Lyman-α ...
5 votes
0 answers
186 views

What are some good books/online resources for astronomy problem sets?

I am currently studying for the international olympiad for astronomy and astrophysics (the syllabus can be found here: https://www.ioaastrophysics.org/syllabus/). I am currently using Carroll Ostlie's ...
5 votes
0 answers
49 views

What happens with a globular cluster when it passes through a galactic disc?

The orbits of globular clusters are crossing the disks of their galaxies, so they should sometimes pass through the disks. Are there any observed fluctuations in the clusters and in the disks ...
5 votes
0 answers
62 views

Strength of core-envelope coupling in stars

For a star with a given Zero-Age Main Sequence (ZAMS) mass, as a function of metallicity how strongly is the star's core coupled to its envelope? I understand that the core-envelope boundary is only (...

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