Questions tagged [cosmology]
Questions about the origin, history, evolution and fate of the Universe.
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Mass of the universe
How do we calculate the mass of the universe taking into consideration dark matter?
Mass of visible matter can be computed by stellar method, but how do we calculate mass of dark matter which we don'...
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0answers
45 views
Motivation for using $\sigma_{8}$?
Press-Schechter formalism allows one to universally quantify the number of massive dark matter halos in a given volume -- The Halo Mass Function. The density contrast is given by the rms mass variance ...
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0answers
18 views
Necessary steps to calculate photon's path by using null geodesic equation
Can anyone please give me an explanation on how to calculate photon's path by using the null geodesic equation? N.B. I know all of the non-zero values of Christoffel symbols.
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1answer
42 views
Ensemble average VS spatial average for a cosmological density field
I'm studying statistical properties of a cosmological density field and I have some doubts; in the following quote and pictures you can see what my problem is:
A fundamental limitation arises in ...
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0answers
56 views
Correction to inverse square law for cosmology
While reading about the discovery of quasars and the spectroscopic analysis of 3C 273 in this paper by Maarten Schmidt, I came across the following quote:
At these distances, corrections to ...
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0answers
22 views
What is the evidence that the universe began in a hot, dense state 13.8 billion years ago? [duplicate]
What are the evidences to prove big bang theory and proof how the universe began in a hot, dense state 13.8 billion years ago?
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1answer
978 views
How can gravitational lensing makes a quasar appear brighter?
How can gravitational lensing makes a quasar brighter than it would in the absence of a foreground galaxy?
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0answers
164 views
How stable is our universe?
I've been reading and thinking about this subject for some time but i can't seem to find a clear answer.
after reading : Aspects of the Higgs boson suggest that our universe is only “marginally ...
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6answers
339 views
Are there other proofs of the expanding universe apart from the redshift?
The theory of the expanding universe is so widely accepted, that the redshift is sometimes used as a measure of distance to far away galaxies.
But is it still possible that the redshift is caused by ...
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1answer
72 views
Time-frame regarding cosmic expansion and the bound state of the Virgo Cluster
Due to accelerating cosmic inflation, other galaxies and galaxy clusters will eventually race toward the Hubble horizon apparently away from us, placing them effectively out of our sphere of influence....
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0answers
35 views
Any ideas for an astronomy + ML project? [closed]
I wish to do an astronomy related project which incorporates machine learning.Do you have any suggestions?
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0answers
39 views
Deducing distance of closest neighbor galaxy from expression of correlation and mean galaxy density
The original post was on physics exchange but I prefer to move it here :
I am trying to estimate the distance of closest galaxy neighbor knowing the expression of number of neighbors $\text{d}N$ into ...
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0answers
109 views
Total number density of galaxies and problematic expression in practise
This post comes from physics exchange forum, I have transfered it here, maybe I will be luckier since I have not received answers on the other forum.
Here is the issue :
I am asked to give the ...
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1answer
67 views
How long would a photon take to reach us if it's emitted from a galaxy receeding at c?
A galaxy at the boundary of the Hubble sphere is receeding from us at the speed of light, right? If it emits a photon now, how long will it take to reach us?
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1answer
75 views
Searches for dipole form of anisotropies (on luminosity distances) in the universe with type Ia supernovae
There are many articles like this one Testing the isotropy of the Universe by using the JLA compilation of type-Ia supernovae (PDF, arxiv.org) trying to search for a dipole effect in cosmology with ...
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1answer
130 views
How will nearby galaxies some day expand beyond our horizon? (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
In his appearance on Television contained in the video The Mystery That Keeps Neil deGrasse Tyson Up At Night, Astronomer andeducator Neil deGrasse Tyson says:
I don’t want to be blamed if you can ...
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3answers
106 views
Why type Ia supernova reaches its peak absolute magnitude(~ -19.3mag) at around 15-20 days after the explosion?
I'm not sure why type Ia supernova reaches its peak magnitude 15-20 days after the explosion. Is this luminosity generated only by the radioactive decay of nickel-56 to cobalt-56?(considering a half-...
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2answers
121 views
What happens for a “closed” universe without any content?
Let an universe with no content and positive curvature.
Friedmann-Lemaître equation
$$H^2=\frac{8\pi G}{3}\left(\rho_m+\rho_r+\rho_{\Lambda}\right)-\frac{k\, c^2}{a^2},$$
where $a$ corresponds to the ...
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1answer
77 views
What exactly is the cosmic definition of ‘now’ is?
There is no cosmic definition of now because of special relativity, because of rate at which time flows for a particular object depends upon your point of view and your velocity. For a rocket ...
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2answers
89 views
Number Density of Dark Matter Halos
Is there a way to calculate the expected number density of Dark Matter Halos above a given mass, in a certain redshift range, and in a certain area?
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1answer
108 views
Is it possible that the Universe is expanding due to additional Big Bang events?
Is it theoretically possible that the Universe is expanding due to additional Big Bang events that have occurred at the same location that the original Big Bang occurred at?
Perhaps there has been an ...
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2answers
54 views
Do we observe Mars Eclipse or Jupiter Eclipse?
We frequently observe lunar eclipse throughout the year. Have we ever observed Mars Eclipse or Jupiter Eclipse or Saturn eclipse?
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1answer
93 views
What exactly is the accretion disk?
Is it really possible for material such as dust, gas and other stellar debris that come near the black hole, doesn't fall into it, instead forms a flattened band of spinning material?
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2answers
86 views
Can black holes be used as an energy source
I’ve heard that black hole will be rotating continuously which stores a huge amount of energy in its rotation. Will this energy be accessible, since the rotation is imposed on the space outside the ...
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1answer
87 views
Are black holes really black? [closed]
I don’t think that black holes are really black as they are the only ones who have the capacity to bend light. At the centre of the black hole the laws of physics are totally defied, black holes ...
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2answers
187 views
Why does earth not collide with the sun? [duplicate]
Gravity is most accurately described by the general theory of relativity (proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915) which describes gravity not as a force, but as a consequence of the curvature of ...
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2answers
165 views
What explains the existence of energy/matter if it cannot be created or destroyed?
If the energy/matter that was contained in the singularity before the Big Bang had always existed, and if it’s true that energy/matter cannot be created or destroyed, then what explains its existence?
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4answers
201 views
Influences from outside the observable universe explaining dark energy and expansion?
Could some influence from outside the observable universe be causing the expansion?
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1answer
65 views
Fundamental axioms in LCDM
What are the axioms (if any) behind the LCDM model of cosmology?
NB: axioms, not postulates (e.g., inflation)
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32 views
Efficiently calculating power spectra from galaxy catalogs
I am dealing with a problem which requires calculating either the correlation function or the power spectrum. At times, the 2-point-correlator seems the better route, at others, the PS. Right now I am ...
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0answers
76 views
Correctly scaling Power Spectrum and Correlation Function of Galaxies from Mock Catalogues
I'm currently writing a code to compute the two-point correlation function of a set of galaxies. As I work with a loooot of galaxies, it was suggested to me not to do it in real space, but to compute ...
4
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1answer
349 views
Angular Diameter Distance
The definition of the angular diameter distance is the ratio of an object's physical transverse size to its angular size. However when I was reading my textbook, Astrophysics in a Nutshell by Dan Maoz ...
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2answers
107 views
How far away is this galaxy?
Arp 299 is in the news, with most sources reporting it as 140 or 150 million light-years away. But what kind of distance is this?
The paper which is trhe source for the news item has Supplementary ...
5
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1answer
161 views
Generating random galaxy catalogs for correlation functions
The galaxy correlation function, when computed directly from a galaxy catalog, relies on computing a randomly generated counterpart catalog.
When dealing with a simulated galaxy mock-catalog, where ...
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0answers
44 views
How to derive the equation for the age of a flat universe with a positive cosmological term?
Can anyone show the steps involved in deriving this equation from the friedmann equation with the cosmological constant involved
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1answer
126 views
Does the CMB pattern evolve in a human lifetime?
I was thinking, as CMB is a snapshot of a slice of the Universe during recombination, how much the cmb is changing with time ?
I mean as we progress in time we look a CMB a bit more faraway each time, ...
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1answer
53 views
Question on Friedman equation involving cosmological constant
This is the question:
By considering both the Friedmann and acceleration equations, and assuming a pressureless
Universe, demonstrate that in order to have a static Universe we must have
a closed ...
3
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1answer
120 views
Question from Introduction to Modern Cosmolgy by Andrew Liddle
The exact question goes like this:
In the real Universe the expansion is not completely uniform. Rather, galaxies exhibit
some random motion relative to the overall Hubble expansion, known as their
...
4
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1answer
227 views
Tests for code that computes two-point correlation function of galaxies
I'm currently writing a code to compute the two-point correlation function of a set of galaxies. As I work with a loooot of galaxies, it was suggested to me not to do it in real space, but to compute ...
1
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1answer
57 views
Who discovered the relation between CMB fluctuations and large-scale structure formation?
I haven't been able to find a reference to the first who showed that the small density fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background led to the formation of large scale structure as we know it.
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2answers
193 views
Approximate conversion of redshift 'z' to a time and/or distance, when reading papers?
I'm looking for some form of "rough and ready" formula to convert between redshift z value, years since BB, and distance, so that when I read an astronomy paper and it discusses an event that occurred ...
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1answer
79 views
What is difference between horizon and comoving distances?
I wonder if there a difference between horizon and comoving distances in cosmology ?
I mean both correspond to a null geodesic $(ds^2=0)$ right ?
$$d_{horizon} (t) =a(t) \int\limits_{0}^{r} \frac{{\...
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4answers
405 views
So where are these measurements of galaxies moving faster than light?
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/400457/what-does-general-relativity-say-about-the-relative-velocities-of-objects-that-a
"we can actually observe galaxies that are moving away from us at >...
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1answer
103 views
What's the oldest possible age of the universe? (LCDM parameter range)
What would happen if you took today's six-parameter LCDM model down to the 5% confidence level? Understanding that the number of permutations is high, I would be particularly interested just in the ...
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2answers
512 views
Why do we continue to find a discrepancy in the Hubble Constant?
After taking a look at some recent papers (examples below) that attempt to derive the value of the Hubble Constant, they all conclude with dramatically different values (speaking in context). Why is ...
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1answer
113 views
Flatness of celestial systems like galaxies and Solar System [duplicate]
If we look around the cosmos, we will see most of the systems are just flat disks. Either it is solar system, galaxies, or the rings of Saturn. What is the matter, does it depend on how they were ...
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2answers
223 views
The CNO cycle in first generation of stars
I'm an undergrad interested in astophysics and this question struck my mind:
As the CNO cycle requires carbon to start, and carbon is produced by thermonuclear fusion in stars, is it fair to think ...
3
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1answer
223 views
Has a “white hole” theory been advanced to explain anomalous star formation in Sagittarius A?
In 2008, the European Southern Observatory reported, upon the end of a 16-year study described here http://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso0846/, that the 28 stars nearest the very large black hole in ...
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2answers
317 views
How did UV from the earliest stars 'alter the state of the 21 cm line' such that it shows up in CMB today?
In this question I discuss the recent (open access) paper in Nature An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum at length. The abstract begins:
After stars formed in ...
6
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1answer
259 views
Early universe's first starlight (indirectly) detected for the first time, could it have been detectable with 1970's technology?
The recent paper in Nature An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum seems (to me at least) to be an incredibly simple and elegant experiment with far-reaching ...
