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Unanswered Questions

192 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
10 votes
0 answers
215 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 ...
8 votes
1 answer
623 views

Why do the Sun and gas planets rotate faster at equator than at poles?

From this site, it states that: The Sun spins faster at its equator than at its poles. I have also read somewhere that the gas giants (gaseous planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) also ...
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 ...
6 votes
0 answers
153 views

How was the axial tilt of planets measured?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt#Solar_System_bodies gives the axial tilt of all planets with two decimal precision, but how and when were they measured so precisely ? I guess it's "easy&...
6 votes
0 answers
173 views

How quickly do planetary rings form?

Just a very general question, but I haven't seen this discussed elsewhere. If a moon gets busted up for some reason, say a collision with another moon, and is at the right orbital distance from its ...
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 ...
5 votes
0 answers
88 views

Is there a noob-friendly website/app for tracking a astronomical body's apparent movement over time?

As I walk home along my road most nights in winter, I see the Moon and one-or-more planets. Unsurprisingly, over the last 2 months, if it's been the same planet and it (and the Moon) has been in ...
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
289 views

Why aren't there sulfuric acid seas on Venus?

It's commonly known that sulfuric acid rain doesn't reach Venus' surface. It evaporates instead because the surface it too hot. But considering how high the pressure at the surface (9.3 MPa), shouldn'...
5 votes
0 answers
100 views

How do the giant planets excite the orbits of asteroids?

The giant planets, particularly Jupiter, are notorious for bringing about changes in eccentricities and inclinations of smaller bodies(asteroids and KBOs). Jupiter, in fact, throws almost all the ...
5 votes
0 answers
98 views

Why do degenerate objects get hotter as more mass is added?

After reading this question, I decided to post a question about degeneracy. I've seen simulations on large, $15\text{+ }M_J$ objects that are accreting mass. They do not grow in radius, instead they ...
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
83 views

Can mean motion resonances make orbits more unstable rather than more stable?

This paper on closely packed orbit simulation seems to suggest that having the planets in first and second order resonances decreases the time till orbits cross each other. I'd got the impression that ...
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 (...
4 votes
0 answers
100 views

What are the odds of a planet with an eclipse every time the moon rotated around the planet?

If the orbital plane of a planet and its moon were sufficiently aligned, the moon could cause a solar eclipse every lunar month. What are the odds of that happening? To answer, I would guess that one ...

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