Astronomy and Cosmology

I am currently studying Cosmology in School, and was told that after a supernova there can still be some of the core remaining which becomes a superdense neutron star. I was also told that these spin with a frequency of 30.2Hz. Is there any particular reason for that frequency? Do all neutron stars spin at this rate, and why?

Exactly how do we define a 'killer' asteroid? Asteroids currently zipping past Earth range around one to two kilometers in size. Is this large enough to prompt the mass extinction events that have occurred periodically? Or is a larger body required?

I originally wrote all this back in March, but earlier tonight I found an article by chance from 2006 where physicists had proposed this exact same thing. And if you look at this link, it looks like they even have a working model and set of equations for it. Here's the link: http://phys.org/news77190620.html%29./ This gravitational hypothesis explains the phenomenon which 'dark energy' is popularly used to explain as just a geometric consequence of gravity at the macroscopic scale of superclusters, and the math involved particularily with gravity at this scale had always been overlooked. Another noteworthy point about this gravitational hypothesis is that there's …

This is an interresting one! Oh damn, Sorry, I pressed enter to quickly, Now the Big Rip happens when the expansion of the universe goes faster than the speed of light, (which is highly unlikely). All things will 'rip' apart and be torn into pieces. From gravity to all matter in the universe, everything will disapear in seconds. It will be similar to this picture. Now for this to physically work... it doesn't. Nothing can be faster than light. Even photons that carry information can't go faster than ligth ©. But let's see in about 22 billion years, shall we?

You may have heard e=mc2 basically means one tiny piece of matter is equivalent to the speed of light (times the speed of light) in energy. BBN theory basically states in order to convert all the energy of the universe into matter, it had to expand faster than the speed of light, after the time of God's great kickoff. To my knowledge, this is the only mechanism known for converting energy into matter and therefore e=mc2 is (or more specifically was) bipolar. I tried, once upon a time to conceive a process to convert energy into mass. So far, no success, I failed. I've heard about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)... I view that as large machine that shatt…

For the sacke of this arguement, the universe began homogonously. From the start of time, gravity causes matter to accreate in larger and larger mass(es). Cloud to planet, star, galaxy and/or blackhole. The accreation process is a natural order of mass and (as yet) un-ending. No theory, I'm aware of, accounts for the effect on light passing through increasing potential of gravity wells. I postulate every wave of light that traverses the course of the universe passes through countless gravity wells. Further postulate the majority of wells encountered experience increased gravity potential, due to accreation, between the moment light encounter and the mome…

I came across this article that talks about how in the HL Tauri system new planets can be seen forming around the star. Then later in the article it gives a link to "Its always wind around this baby star" http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/revolutionary-new-view-of-baby-planets-forming-around-a-star-141106.htm http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/its-always-a-windy-day-around-this-baby-star-14092.htm Here is my question: Space is affected by mass, that space gets 'dimpled' by the planets thus giving us gravity. How then can dust particles and small rocks create enough of a gravity well that will prevent the solar wind from blowing it away…

I'm under the impression that neutron stars are rather calm on their own. Their gravity and magnetic field is so intense that the crust is essentially locked into place and it is only rarely that there are sudden shifts that create starquakes. But, maybe not, I don't know. Is this true? Or are there hundreds of small quakes every second on a neutron star that would be similar to a constant 6.5 magnitude earthquake on Earth?

I've heard a few cosmologists state that once a star (large enough to go bang) makes iron, it goes supernovae. I find that very hard to believe based on distribution of elements. Based on that chart, it looks like half the mass of solar system is heavier elements than iron. It is incomprehensible to me that half the mass of our solar system was converted to heavier elements at the moment of supernovae event. Am I really that dense? ( attempt to be phunny )

Question; Motion is the integral principle to all things. The planet's orbit the sun (We start here for brevity), The Solar system moves in accord with the center (Black hole) of it's Galaxy, The galaxy is in motion due to inflation, can we then conclude that space (Dark matter/energy) also, is in motion?. The distance from Earth to the Sun is 149,600,600 km. The distance of the Solar system to the center of it's galaxy, we can say is incalculable. In consideration of totality of distance's, between matter's, within the whole of the universe. We can assign "various" distance as, 3.14159. (Pie). if this be true, space then must itself, be in motion,too pie. No shape no…

There is a public campaign to submit names for the features on Pluto and Charon. This opportunity ends on April 24, 2015. I have already nominated Leonard Nimoy since Pluto is the god of the underworld and Charon carries the souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx to the afterlife I think it is fitting. http://www.ourpluto.org/home

Of all the planets Jupiter being the largest has the best chance of orbiting its barycenter with the Sun, well so I thought. What does the maths tell us? How to calculate the Barycenter? How to calculate the gravitational attraction between the Sun and Jupiter. Comparing that gravitational force to the centrifugal force of a planet orbiting a point. What do the references tell us at the moment.

Some see Electrodynamic Tethers as the future of space travel and many are right. They are cost effective and have relatively basic fundemental equasions including Faraday's Law of Induction and the Lorentz Force Equation. But this technology has the potential to not only be used to for propolsion, but also as powerful generators. When a tether comes in contact with a planet which has a magnetic field, it generates a current and converts some kinetic energy into electrical energy.

I keep hearing that science cannot explain where the missing 95% of the mass of the universe is, ok so I keep hearing it in dumbed down news reports and TV shows and not so much in white papers. I will therefore conceed there is probably a large gap in my knowledge but it got me thinking. After the big bang came inflation, after inflation the universe cooled enough for matter to form which it did in almost equal ammounts of matter and anti-matter. This then anihilated almost completely leaving only a small amount of matter remaining. This must have caused another rather large bang as all that mass was in a considerably smaller universe than todays. So am I right in th…

In the center of a black hole sits it's singularity. An infinitely dense point. I question, because this singularity is said to be infinitely dense, then shouldn't it's mass be infinite as well. Well this cannot be so, seeing that gravity is based on mass and distance, and we are not currently being sucked into a black hole. But imagine that this black hole does have infinite mass. We could expect that distance between us and black holes would regulate this much gravity, but even lessening infinity is impossible. Thus, there would have to be some sort of energy or force that regulates this gravity and keeps it at bay. SOmething that breaks the laws of physics that we know…

I recently got interested in our space. While I was watching documentries about Cosmos, I got this question. Scientists are searching for planets which might have water so that it can support life on it. What if some beings evolved to the conditions they have on their planet. For example, take a planet which doesnt have conditions that doesnt support life as we humans know. It is filled with a heavily poisionus gas that would kill us instantly. But what if some beings evolved on that planet and that poisonous gas is like Oxygen to them. Arent we ignoring those planets while searching for extraterrestrial life.

Venus is retrograde. Why ? Are there any equations that explain the same or any model that describes the anomalous behavior ? Please opine.

I was just quickly looking and couldn't find the answer, wiki says the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years. WMAP took observations of the CMBR and wiki says this: "NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project's nine-year data release in 2012 estimated the age of the universe to be (13.772±0.059)×109 years (13.772 billion years, with an uncertainty of plus or minus 59 million years).[2] However, this age is based on the assumption that the project's underlying model is correct; other methods of estimating the age of the universe could give different ages. Assuming an extra background of relativistic particles, for example, can enlarge the error bars o…

Brief info on Shell theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem In classical mechanics, the shell theorem gives gravitational simplifications that can be applied to objects inside or outside a spherically symmetrical body. This theorem has particular application to astronomy Isaac Newton proved the shell theorem[1] and said that: A spherically symmetric body affects external objects gravitationally as though all of its mass were concentrated at a point at its centre. If the body is a spherically symmetric shell (i.e., a hollow ball), no net gravitational force is exerted by the shell on any object inside, regardless of the object's location within the shell.…

I have a question.. I saw the model that shows how clumps or strands of dark matter hold things together. There were a lot of empty space between the branches mapped. My question is does dark energy exist along with dark matter or is dark energy, that seems to be pushing apart the galaxies possibly a byproduct of black hole waste repelled somehow into empty space causing dark matter to stretch thinner at alarming speed. All galaxies have massive black holes and no one knows of anything that can escape from one. So far. Crazy..but a theory of mine.

A question to the scientific minds out there. As gravity has an effect on light and other electromagnetic radiation could light and other EM radiation have an equal and opposite effect on its surroundings and thus account for all the excess gravity out there? I'm sure this has been ruled out by more qualified people than me in the past, can anyone throw any light on this? Thanks

I'm not sure that I fully understand the basic Concepts of modern science. Therefore, Please advice if you agree with the following descriptions:. Observation: Whatever we see. For example we see redshift of farthest galaxies. Evidence: a direct outcome from this observation that had been proved by confirmed theory or physics law. For example based on the redshift observation and Doppler Effect we know for sure that all the farther galaxies accelerating from us. Therefore, this is evidence. Theory: Any unconfirmed/unproved Idea or Speculation which can give a feasible explanation/ solution for that observation or evidence. Confirmed Theory: A theory which had be…

So I know that the reason why planets and other celestial bodies are round is due to gravity, and I know any flat/disk world would buckle under gravitational pressure to reform itself into a sphere. But my question is: what would you have to do in order to sustain a disk shape? How much energy or force (relative to the central mass, and radius of the disk) would you need to exert on the edges in order to retain its shape - Is there a mathematical formula for this? And could this ever occur naturally (denser masses at the edges, for instance), or would it have to be man-made?

There are some 29,000 spectral lines in Sunlight, with 15% unidentified. What hypothesis are there to explain them? The spectral lines of all the elements are known, except perhaps for some of the ones with extremely short half-lives. Is it possible that states of matter exist in the sun that we don't know about, which create the unidentified spectral lines? Is it possible that dark matter is involved?

Cosmic censorship is a hypothesis with a lot to be said for it - but at present it is untested and untestable