Unanswered Questions
1,296 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
17
votes
1answer
551 views
How small can a spiral galaxy be?
The smallest observed spiral galaxies I can find are NGC 2976 and NGC 4605, both with a diameter of 20 kly, but I don't have anything like an exhaustive source to search. I've also found a mention ...
13
votes
1answer
447 views
What fraction of a star's hydrogen store will be fused over its lifespan?
A main sequence star will fuse some of its hydrogen, but not all. In massive stars ($>1.5M_\odot$) the core is convective but the rest of the atmosphere radiative and hence does not mix much: as it ...
11
votes
0answers
91 views
Is stellar ignition all-or-nothing?
The boundary between brown dwarfs and stars is around 80 Jupiter masses. Only stars generate a self-sustaining hydrogen fusion, although brown dwarfs sometimes fuse lithium and deuterium.
Is hydrogen ...
11
votes
0answers
260 views
What is the limiting abundances of elements at the end of the stelliferous era?
Is there any reputable published source on expected elemental abundances at the end of the era of stellar fusion? I am here interested in the contents of galaxies; much of intergalactic gas will be ...
10
votes
0answers
259 views
Planning to revisit Arthur Eddington's experiment from 1919
As the fateful day draws closer, the United States will host a celestial event that comes once in three generations. I plan to witness this first hand at the exact center of greatest eclipse.
In the ...
10
votes
0answers
152 views
Estimating the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection
I would like to know how I can estimate the tangential and cross component of the galaxy's shear using Gnomonic projection
of the right ascension and declination the galaxies relate to the center of ...
9
votes
0answers
188 views
How do radio astronomers avoid having their receivers burned out by ground-imaging radar from satellites?
After about 34:00 in the 9th press conference of AAS 235, radio astronomer and NRAO's spectrum manager Harvey Liszt talks about Radio Astronomy in a New Era of ...
9
votes
0answers
160 views
What alternative facilities would be available in the event of JWST being destroyed?
Unfortunately, space launches can and do go wrong. Suppose that after all the delays and budget overruns, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope fails and the telescope becomes a cloud of very ...
9
votes
1answer
176 views
Error propagation methods for orbit parameters
Recently I've encountered an article in our local astronomical popularization magazine. It is about a well known task of Sgr A*-black hole's mass estimation. The article is written as a step by step ...
9
votes
0answers
96 views
How can maser emission be unpolarized?
I was reading that:
However, unlike Galactic sources such as W3(OH), the emission is unpolarized and the 1667 MHz line is stronger than the 1665 MHz line.
but how is this possible? Does not the ...
8
votes
0answers
96 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
0answers
116 views
Spatial wind speed distribution on Mars using dune shapes?
As a fan of exometeorology (the study of atmospheres of other planets), I scanned through a whitepaper Measuring Mars Atmospheric Winds from Orbit which says
Measurements of Mars
atmospheric winds ...
7
votes
0answers
193 views
Explanation of an imaginary transformation occurring in the determination of trigonometric series for the elliptical equation of the center
One of the oldest problems in astronomy, which dates back to to the time of Kepler, is the problem of development in infinite trigonometric series of the "equation of the center" - to ...
7
votes
0answers
97 views
Color index B-V of the dimming Betelgeuse
Using AAVSO light curve generator I have plotted V and B magnitudes of Betelgeuse in the past 150 days to see trend of B-V color index. If dust would be the cause of the recent drop in the star ...
7
votes
0answers
151 views
Why would a black hole have a disk, but not emit x-rays?
There's a recent paper in Nature about LB-1, a B-class star orbiting a massive black hole.
I don't understand how these two parts of the paper can be reconciled. On page 2, the authors argue that the ...
