1,296 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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 ...
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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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 ...
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### 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 ...
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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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...
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 ...
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### 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 ...
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### 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 ...