If Alpha Centauri A our neighboring star happens to shift into a Red Giant or a Planetary Nebula, Will our star system be affected? And if so is there a ripple effect throughout the galaxy causing a disturbance or activating a nearby star to shift into a new cycle?
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3$\begingroup$ Alpha Cen will be nowhere near the Sun when it becomes a red giant. $\endgroup$– ProfRobCommented Feb 5, 2016 at 21:25
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I'm not sure if this is a misunderstanding or just a matter of scientific terminology, but the "star cycle" is not something you can "drastically change".
The life cycle of a star (as we currently understand it) is a fairly predictable set of stages of evolution from the formation of a star from a cloud of gas, along the main sequence (the stable stage out own star is currently in) and then to "death" of the star as it's internal fuel runs out, and material can be released back to the interstellar medium.
For more details see the Wikipedia page, this video from NASA, or this very simplified diagram from the BBC.
But to answer the underlying question, stars at different stages of their life cycle can definitely affect other stars, planetary systems, or interstellar matter that is nearby in many ways. Here are a few examples:
- When young stars are born they may be quite close together and their mutual gravitational forces will disrupt circumstellar disks (where planets form), which may inhibit the formation of planets, but the specifics of this are debated in the scientific community.(see this paper)
- At the end of their life cycle, more massive stars may explode in a supernova, which releases lots of energy and throws matter out. This can change the structure of clouds of gas and can compress it, possibly triggering new stars to form in the more dense material. This is also a topic of current study so the exact details and mechanisms are not very well understood, but the theory is logical and observations have been found that seem to confirm this.(see this paper)
- A white dwarf star and a red giant star in a binary system can have transfer of mass from the red giant to the white dwarf. A white dwarf has a maximum stable mass (Chandrasekhar limit) so when the mass exceeds this, the white dwarf will go supernova - this is , as you stated, a drastic change in one star due to interaction with another star.
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$\begingroup$ Thanks for the confirmation, I just wanted to be sure science does not know this answer yet. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 5, 2016 at 15:39
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1$\begingroup$ That's not really what I said. To summarise my answer: yes there are ways stars influence each other, we can predict the major changes, but the exact interactions are very hard to describe in chaotic systems. $\endgroup$– FJCCommented Feb 5, 2016 at 15:50
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$\begingroup$ @FJC- Theses transformations that stars go through happen million and million of years apart and science has not been given the oppertunity to record these occurrences enough to conclude exactly how they influence each other.I wonder if Alpha Centauri A is the second most watched star science keeps their eye on? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 5, 2016 at 17:22
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$\begingroup$ @FJC-The Sun produces thousands of times more energy in the form of electrical energy as it does in the form of light energy. So would you agree that two neighboring stars might interact electrically? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 5, 2016 at 17:39
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$\begingroup$ @TheVoid - The Sun does not produce electrical energy. I assume from the answer you posted below that you are taking that fact from James McCanney's ideas. However this has been shown to be wrong as the initial statement in your answer ("Sun..ejects large composite streamers of primarily protons in the solar wind.") is false. The solar wind is a plasma made up of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. Overall it is electrically neutral, so the Sun does not build up any net charge. $\endgroup$– FJCCommented Feb 7, 2016 at 16:20