Questions tagged [star-systems]

Questions regarding two or more stars gravitationally bound to each other

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Why can't a half-illuminated planet support life at all?

Here is my own translation of the Polish version of the Drake equation article in Wikipedia: (...) They must provide the right amount of heat. The smaller the star, the less heat it gives off and the ...
trejder's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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Is there an assessement of chemical element availability in other star systems?

This question is linked to my previous question about star metallicity’s link to the chemical element availability in that star’s planetary system: Is there a link between a star's metallicity and ...
Krišjānis Liepiņš's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

What determines the edge/boundary of a star system?

According to Education.nationalgeographic, "A star system is a group of planets, meteors, or other objects that orbit a large star. While there are many star systems, including at least 200 ...
Hikerguy's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

It's 12 June 2023, almost 11 PM... location: Chitral, KPK, Pakistan. What constellations, celestial objects can you identify in this picture. Help

This picture is taken from Chitral District of KPK, Pakistan... Time: 12 June 2023, 11PM approximately ...I want you to tell me what constellations, celestial objects can you identify in it?
Khalil Ur Rehman's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
167 views

Is there a link between a star's metallicity and the availability of chemical elements in its system?

Considering aspects of interstellar trade for worldbuilding purposes, I'm researching what resources might be available in each star system. The premise is that if one star system has an abundance of ...
Krišjānis Liepiņš's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
120 views

How did people in Mali know that there were two stars appearing as one in Sirius before telescopes were invented?

Did they invent a telescope and keep it quiet? Given that glass has been around for 4000 years (made in mesopotamia in 2000 BC) was it technically possible to polish it and make convex shapes from it ...
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-2 votes
1 answer
61 views

Can a star with a stellar mass of 1.176 with a similar composition to the Sun have a planet with these characteristics?

Imagine a solar system similar to ours that has a star with a similar composition to the Sun and a stellar mass of 1.176 and an Earthlike planet with about 1.18 times the mass of Earth in its ...
Galactic's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
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Are stars attracted to one another by their magnetic fields?

What effect do the magnetic fields of stars have on one another:do they tend to repel or attract one another?
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2 votes
1 answer
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Did the Grus star get expelled from the Milky way because it was accelerated by the Sagittarius A black hole?

On Wikipedia there is an article that says a star may have been expelled from the Milky Way because it interacted with Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A* from Wikipedia: In July 2019, astronomers reported ...
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1 vote
1 answer
73 views

When gravitational waves pass through a star or gas cloud do they cause mixing of plasma and gas?

Does the compression and stretching of space stir up molecules and atoms?
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49 views

Do whirlpools of turbulence exist in stars just like the whirlpools that exist in water?

Is there turbulence in the hot plasma and gas of stars that is mathematically the same as whirlpools in water?
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2 votes
1 answer
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Why are the largest stars, such as O-type or B-type, most likely to be in multi-star systems; while red dwarfs are least likely?

I was just reading about what percentage of stars in our galaxy and, perhaps, other galaxies are in binary systems (or trinary... etc.). Researchers keep going back and forth about whether or not most ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Calculating the expected lifespan for a binary system

I’m doing some research work on finding a correlation between the mass of binary stars and their lifespan. I have methods to find the mass, and that department seems to be going fine, but is there a ...
Vedant 's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
60 views

If a planet orbits an M-Star in an S-type orbit around a G star, what is the minimum distance from the G star that it could remain tidally locked?

I'm wondering how close a planet-M-dwarf system could orbit a G star and have the planet remain tidally locked to the M star. I'm curious, because I'm designing a habitable planet, and I want the ...
Elhammo's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
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When calculating the mass of stars, is it considered that additional mass could be added because of pair-production?

I would like to know that, since stars emit a lot of photons where some of them could be producing electrons-positrons pairs, if its mass affects the calculations, and if because of this is different ...
Joako's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
181 views

What does a + (plus) mean in stellar classification?

I've noticed some stellar classifications might look like this: A0IV+G: (HD 70003) F3IV+F0IV (HD 82434) ...
aggregate1166877's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
834 views

how much time do Alpha Centauri A and B have?

According to Wikipedia: Alpha Centauri A: $M=1.100 M_\odot$ and $L = 1.519 L_\odot$ Alpha Centauri B: $M=0.907M_\odot$ and $L=0.5002L_\odot$ They are 5-6 billion years old (you can assume they are 5.5 ...
green_the_planet's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
146 views

Binary Star System

If our Sun was a part of a Binary Star System, would it be too hot to live on Earth ? With two Suns, would we get double the heat from them ,than from our Sun alone ?
Peter U's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
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Nomenclature of Interstellar Objects and Stars

I posted this question on the space exploration SE but people recommended that it would be more on-topic here. Could someone please help by giving some definite laws of nomenclature for celestial ...
Raghavendra Singh's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
102 views

Virial ratio behaviour

I think I didn't understand something about virial theorem for an $N$-body system, for instance the behaviour of virial ratio $T/\Omega$, with $T$ kinetic energy and $\Omega$ gravitational potential ...
Zebx's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
841 views

What is the upper bound of number of stable interacting stars in a star system?

I remember very well reading in an article that it's impossible to have a stable star system of 4 or more stars. The article justified its claim discussing about the complexity such systems would have ...
Demis's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Does a star's rotation always match a planet's orbit?

For a planet orbiting a star, is it ever possible for a star to be rotating in the opposite way on it's own axis compared to the planet that is orbiting the star? Or do gravitational forces mean the ...
WDUK's user avatar
  • 415
1 vote
2 answers
154 views

Eta Cassiopeiae star type; G0V? F9V? Both?

For a story I am looking into the star system of Eta Cassiopeiae, which is a binary with a main sequence star called Achird (very similar to the sun) and a K7V star. The issue I am running into is the ...
Markitect's user avatar
  • 305
1 vote
2 answers
136 views

Fate of lone spiral galaxies?

I know Hubble's galaxy classification scheme and the bifurcation from elliptical galaxies into two types of spiral ones. I am also aware of different theories on how spiral galaxies form e.g. through ...
B--rian's user avatar
  • 5,526
3 votes
1 answer
129 views

What are hot and cold stellar systems?

My idea of the matter is: hot stellar systems are which form of objects which have a velocity standard deviation comparable to their mean velocity. Is this correct? If it is, is there a $\frac{\...
zabop's user avatar
  • 481
2 votes
2 answers
168 views

Celestron Nexstar 102GT

Good day folks. My Grandson would like to start using this Telescope Celestron Nexstar GT102, has been in the basement for years, and unfortunately, we appear to have misplaced the eyepieces. Just ...
SteveT's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is it possible to have a trinary star system with a planet that orbits their barycenter?

I am trying to model a 3-star system with a planet. The three stars have the same mass. I have gotten the stars (Yellow, Pink, Blue) into a stable orbit. However, I am wondering if a "free-...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
7 votes
3 answers
929 views

Why are stars still distant from one another? [duplicate]

Why are stars so far from each other? Shouldn't gravity pull them closer over time? And if the effects of gravity are negligible is there an explanation why stars have to be so distant from one ...
Helena Wells's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
173 views

Fractional contribution of secondary star

What do we mean by "the luminosity fraction" and "the fractional contribution of the secondary star" of binary stars? can anyone suggest any method to calculate them theoretically?...
Jiswin's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
716 views

Why is detecting brown dwarfs difficult?

Why is detecting brown dwarf stars tedious and not always successful? They emit light in the infrared region, and given that we're surrounded by state-of-the-art technology in space today, why haven't ...
Pranay's user avatar
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42 votes
1 answer
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Closest star system to Alpha Centauri?

The closest star system to our Solar System is Alpha Centauri. But is our Solar System the closest star system to Alpha Centuari? If not, which star system is?
badroit's user avatar
  • 523
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

How many stars are there max and average per galaxy?

What is the range of the number of stars possible in a galaxy? What is the rough average? Googling leads to vague answers, things like "billions upon billions". But what is a more pinpointed set of ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 215
2 votes
0 answers
77 views

PHOEBE 2.2 Documentation, components and semi-major axis definitions

I'm looking at PHOEBE 2.2 Documentation, specifically at a tutorial about constraints What are Constraints? Constraints live in their own context of the Bundle, and many are created by default - ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 155
3 votes
2 answers
252 views

How Does Earth Move In Relation To The Stars

In my simulation, I have stars scattered around Earth, all stars are the same distance from the center of the Earth and positioned based on their right ascension and declination like so: I am ...
SidS's user avatar
  • 225
5 votes
0 answers
79 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 ...
Axion's user avatar
  • 345
0 votes
2 answers
13k views

About more than 15 stars moving in straight line through the sky [duplicate]

I had seen more than 15 stars are moved in a straight line through the sky just like a train. And the distance between each star was not same, some of them were near and some of them were far. The ...
Sajeesh's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
73 views

Derivation of a formula for the mass of a tidal bulge and tidal torque

I've been looking into the tidal mechanism for a binary star system and seem to have hit a brick wall. In the literature (see below), little explanation is given to justify the equations (9.60), (9.61)...
user29126's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
126 views

Maxwell stress contribution to $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{P}$ in the Navier-Stokes equation for fluid in stars

I was reading through the following extract outlining how the Maxwell stress contributes to the $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{P}$ term of the Navier-Stokes equation for fluids in a star. Here $\mathbf{P}$ is ...
user29126's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
6k views

Why are there no stars visible in cislunar space?

It’s very puzzling that the moon landing had no stars in the background, the ISS clips have no stars in the background. I listened to multiple astronaut interviews speak on what it looks like up in ...
Autodidact's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
33 views

Data on galactocentric distances of various stars?

I'm creating a project for my astronomy class (introductory course) that requires knowledge of the galactocentric distances for many stars. I'm struggling to find a good source on this, and I'd rather ...
user26139's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
88 views

Can any type of stars be contact binaries?

In this article Shortest distance between stars it is mentioned that Some double stars can actually be in contact with each other. This occurs when a red giant star has a white dwarf star ...
Pablo's user avatar
  • 1,019
2 votes
1 answer
227 views

How many arc seconds is Sirius "spiralling motion" around Sirius B?

I know that Sirius A and B orbit each other. I'd like to ask how large is their relative apparent motion in arc seconds, seen from Earth?
pol0's user avatar
  • 89
6 votes
2 answers
586 views

What happens when a star gets hit by a supernova?

This may sound like a strange question, but say that two stars are relatively next to one another in a binary star system, what would happen to one of the stars if the other went supernova? Would it ...
C. Jordan's user avatar
  • 235
3 votes
1 answer
177 views

Recognising lunar month only by looking at the sky

Suppose somebody went on an island and don't have sense about time, dates, months. The only thing he has is seeing the sky. Is it possible to recognise which lunar month it is by just looking the sky? ...
Alem's user avatar
  • 139
2 votes
2 answers
311 views

Do all orbiting objects have barycenters?

From the simple perspective of someone like myself, it appears that our sun is "fixed in place" (from the perspective of the solar system itself) and that everything else of lower mass orbits around ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 552
0 votes
2 answers
109 views

What is the official classification and naming system of objects in the universe(, or what would my URI look like)?

Poetic human centric approach: Universe/Laniakea/Virgo/MilkyWay/Sol/Earth/Humans/AndreasT Little bit more technical: ...
AndreasT's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
1 answer
143 views

Where do gas giants end up?

I want to create a semi realistic star system generator but I am not sure where to "put in" gas giants. My guess is they can form pretty much anywhere within the sphere of influence of a star at the ...
Madmenyo's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
1 answer
164 views

H-R diagram, Double stars

Can someone help me? I have a case, like, we have H-R diagram and two stars on it. One of them is a blue star on main sequence, another is a red giant. They have equal luminosity. If they are in a ...
Magaz0909's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

Trisolar syzygy and it's effects on the planet

Slightly spoilers here, but in the novel The Three-Body Problem, there's a scene in which Civilization #184 is destroyed by the stacked gravitational attraction of the planet's (aptly named Trisolaris)...
Yuri-M-Dias's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
160 views

Color changing celestial body near the moon [closed]

While I was star gazing yesterday in the night time I observed a celestial body( probably a star ) flaunting various colors and was residing near the moon from the angle I saw it. It appeared to be ...
Sathvik Swaminathan's user avatar