Unanswered Questions
143 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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How can I calculate evolutionary timescales of low mass stars?
How can I calculate how long a star of a given mass will spend on an evolutionary branch before evolving off it?
I'm thinking about the evolution of low mass stars from the subgiant branch to the red ...
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Potential energy in an expanding universe
A question you wonderful geniuses can hopefully answer. Imagine a piece of string drawn between two galaxies. Space between the galaxies is expanding. What force is being applied to the string? Where ...
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Deviations of conservation laws in the context of cosmological evolution?
If energy is "not conserved" in General Relativity (or at least, it is difficult to define it) in the context of an accelerating expanding spacetime (like it happens in our Universe), are ...
- 1,017
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Cosmic microwave background the same as the first visible light at 379,000 yrs after the Big Bang? How do these measure the age of the universe?
Was the CMB emitted at the same time as visible light at 379,000 yrs after the BB ? Was this a one time event ? If headed away from us, how does it measure the age of the universe?
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How can a busy high school student get into learning Astronomy?
I'm a high school student that has loved physics for quite some time, but have only started dabbling with the more complex things. I know a fair bit about quantum mechanics and such as I like it, but ...
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What is the main difference between cyclotron, synchrotron, and gyrosynchrotron radiation?
How are these various types of radiation generated? What is the main difference between them? Can someone suggest a book related to these radiations?
- 15k
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Why do blue horizontal branch stars turn downwards on the HR diagram as opposed to red horizontal branch stars which remain fairly constant?
Horizontal branch stars (HB) burn helium at their cores. Red horizontal branch (RHB) stars experience an increase in temperature while their radii decrease so their luminosity remains somewhat ...
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Are red clump stars horizontal branch stars?
The wikipedia article about horizontal branch stars says:
A related class of stars is the clump giants, those belonging to the
so-called red clump, which are the relatively younger (and hence more
...
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Strength of core-envelope coupling in stars (again)
I asked this on the physics SE but it received little attention:
Consider a high-mass zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) (e.g., $m_{\rm ZAMS} \gtrsim 30\,$M$_{\odot}$) star.
I understand that the core-...
- 4,533
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Uranium accumulating inside a White Dwarf?
A couple of days ago, there was news that "Some dead stars may harbor enough uranium to set off a thermonuclear bomb", which is basically a teaser for Actinide crystallization and fission ...
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Why are CMB peak heights sensitive to the physical densities
A very simple question: why should it be that the CMB power spectrum allows constraints to be placed on the combination of parameters
$$\omega_c = \Omega_c h^2$$
$$\omega_b = \Omega_b h^2$$
as opposed ...
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How much do stars brighten as they age?
There's a fair amount of info out there about the mass-luminosity relation, i.e. giving some approximate equations for the luminosity of a main sequence star as a function of its mass, e.g. $L_* = M_*^...
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Superconducting space dust; what transient fields could induce persistent current loops?
Science Alert's Superconductivity Has Been Discovered in Meteorites For The First Time quotes from Superconductivity found in meteorites (Wampler et al. PNAS March 23, 2020)
The paper describes the ...
CommunityBot
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Information on Planetary nebula formed from the death of our star the 'Sun'!
I want to know the expansion rate, composition, mass and density of hydrogen present of a Planetary nebula similar to that which will be formed after the death of our star the sun.
Knowing these ...
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Combined mass of binary stars
This is Question 17 from USAAAO Practice Round 2015. The answer is D. It would be best if someone can detail out the workings.
In a nearby star system, two stars are seen to orbit each other every
...
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