Astronomy and Cosmology

Nuclear Star Clusters resemble massive Globular Clusters, residing in the cores of small galaxies (Ho. Galaxy Formation & Evolution). NSCs, in low-mass galaxies, are associated with surface-brightness 'cusps', having 'disky' isophotes, and evidencing weak rotation. High-mass galaxies tend to host SMBHs, instead of NSCs (Mason. Astrophysics Update 2, p.180). According to 'Hierarchical Structure Formation', small proto-galaxies merge, to make larger galaxies. And, in 'wet' gas-rich galaxy mergers, gas gets 'funneled' to the center of the system, whereat NSCs would reside. Perhaps, then, when small, gas-rich proto-galaxies merge, gas gets funneled to the center, env…

http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.3432 This is a 39 page article that delves into a dozen or so different answers to the Fermi question/paradox that have been proposed over the past half century. The author is a Belgrade astronomer/SETI expert/future generalist. He seems to know a lot and reason carefully, like a credible academic. Well, that's my first impression. Maybe you can find some flaws, if so please let the rest of us know where you think he is wrong. I don't think he has any preferred answer, he compares and weighs them all. Maybe he ends up throwing out some as relatively improbable, and narrowing down to the ones he thinks are better. But on the whole it…

In our galaxy, stars form from within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), of cold molecular hydrogen (H2), characterized by densities of 10-18km/m3; and, temperatures of 10K. GMCs, which "are not gravitationally bound", may be compressed by the surrounding, hot-but-diffuse, Inter-Stellar Medium (ISM). Collapse/compression continues, until the cloud becomes opaque to its own thermal radiation emissions, at densities of 10-10-10-9km/m3; and, temperatures of a few hundred Kelvins. Note, that densities increase by nearly nine orders-of-magnitude; whereas, temperatures increase by only one-and-a-half orders of magnitude, i.e. the clouds contract nearly semi-iso-thermally. On…

Why do some star-planet systems are so compact like Kepler11 ?

Does anyone know of an entertaining source of information of the stars near our solar system (<50 lightyears)? I am looking for more information... and it's just for my own entertainment. No project, no work, no urgent questions, just a desire to learn more, while at the same time too lazy to chew through the dry information or poorly written websites and books. I have already found a nice atlas of the solar neighborhood, which 3D pictures of our neighborhood within 12.5, 50 and 250 lightyears, and quite a bit of additional information. I think is pretty awesome, although I personally would want to make that thing a rotating 3D model where you can seamlessly zoom …

With Hobson's notation: H=(da/dt)/a dH/dt = ((d2a/dt2)/a) - ((da/dt)/a)2 If ((d2a/dt2)/a) is negative, (dH/dt) is certainly negative. But if ((d2a/dt2)/a) is positive, (dH/dt) can be positive or negative. What is your interpretation?

Are there, or is it possible that clouds or regions in space can drop hundreds of degrees below absolut zero?

What is the exact calculation of Particle horizon in Lemaître model? Does it exist? Is it finite or infinite? Can anyone calculate that integral? Thanks

If space-time "sags" under the influence, of massive objects: and if matter "grips" space-time, so as to "curl space-time up", i.e. induce positive "contractile" curvature (Wheeler. Journey into Gravity & Spacetime); then might relativistically-dense black-holes be able to "curl the fabric of space-time all the way around", and "pinch off" (vaguely resembling a rain-drop) ??

There may be an easy answer for this, but, if there is please forgive me. I have posted previously about the supposed graviton, thanks for those that replied. I understand that this graviton is the particle responsible for the effects of gravity. Is there a particle that is responsible for the effect of magnetism?

Hello everybody! First of all, please ignore my language mistakes, cause I'm non native speaker. My question is this: is it possible that a telescope in space (located at low orbit, high orbit or somewhere in space) which is mounted on spy satellite or ufo can discern (recognize) human's faces (i.e. "see", that is detect reflected light photons) and simultaneously be invisible (that is do not reflect light photons) for the ground telescopes and let's say hubble telescope? Take into account rotation of The Earth about it's axis and rotation around the Sun. Any corrections of my thoughts are welcomed. Many thanks in advance.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/12/-from-the-x-files-dept-could-the-newly-discovered-gigantic-black-holes-harbor-life-.html Check this article out.

http://www.examiner.com/paelenotology-science-news-in-national/4-5-billion-year-old-concrete-from-space

every one saying that source of dark energy is black hole ,big bang,etc.. but they aren't true.since its so powerful i can't be created by black hole or from left out big bang.hence there is a central force is creating it from center of universe

I can't be the first person to think of this but here it is anyway. If you took a golf ball sized chunk out of a neutron star, or quazar and threw it into outerspace, it would probably have enough weight to cause a gravitational time dialation strong enough to warp the fabric of space time and cause light to bend around it's gravity well field. Some of these molecules might be escaping through the jets of energy that form from time to time at the polar regions. I don't know, what do you think?

Can some one please briefly explain why natural cosmological events are unlikely to generate prime numbers.

Hubble's observations of distant galaxies showed an increase in redshift with distance which is conventionally interpreted as an accelleration in expansion with distance. This has led to all sorts of speculation as to what might be causing such an effect. I have a problem with the statement that distant galaxies are moving away faster. Not the faster bit, but the word "are". In truth we have no idea what they are doing at this point in time, we only know that they were moving away faster when the light which left them billons of years ago started its journey to us. Our view of the universe is down a cone through time with events happening further back in time the fur…

Cluster cores contain anomalously low amounts of baryonic matter, b/c "in the central regions [of galaxy clusters], the gas is repeatedly whipped up and smoothed out by passing galaxies" (daily galaxy 2011). And, shock-heating "sound waves" have been observed, in the ICM, in the cores of nearby clusters, e.g. Perseus, Virgo (Wikipedia). Such shock-waves could, conceivably, have been caused, by the "wakes" of galaxies passing through the cluster core. Therefore, could "galactic stirring", of ICMs, inject sufficient heat, into the ICMs, to prevent "cooling collapse", i.e. to offset observed x-ray emissions of Lx ~ 300 MLsol - 300 GLsol (irwin) ?

People seem to say, that WMAP "proves" that our spacetime "is" flat; for, curved spacetime would lens and distort, our view, of the CMB. But, CMB photons, observed by WMAP, have traveled across our cosmos, from the distant past, i.e. from "way over there, way back then"; to our modern earth, i.e. to "here, now". Thus, the flatness implied, by those un-lensed, un-distorted CMB photons, reflects their inbound, earth-bound, sightlines, from far far away, over the past ~10 Gyr. Er go, WMAP proves that our space-time HAS BEEN flat, along the light-like null-geodesics, along which those photons HAVE traveled, over the PAST billions of years, from the last-scattering-surf…

Entropy = chaos. Chaos theory dictates that it can generate order, e.g. forget the name but those solutions that oscillate between two equilibrium states in rythmical manor. So if chaos can generate or foster order then how is that entropy only ever increase in theory?

If time is truly a dimension and is integral to the concept of space-time, time must be much more than the 'arrow of time' we experience. If all other directions of time exist, could our limited experience of time be similar to how our eyes can only sense a very narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum? As I read about Einstein's theories of time-space, I kept turning to such thoughts. In addition, I recently came across a news item concerning dark matter. As I recall, it stated that dark matter is not concentrated as scientists had speculated, but was dispersed consistently through space. I was struck by a correlation that space is primarily (80 percent?) c…

What was the Size of the universe right after inflation?

Is the accelerating expansion of the universe only experienced between superclusters? Do superclusters also fall apart, or do they remain gravitationally bound? If the expansion is only between superclusters of gallaxies, then it almost seems irrelevant to us, since our supercluster dominates our local experience. Our universe, out to the edge of our supercluster (10s or 100s of light years out) is not expanding at all.

If anyone can help me, I am looking for the %s of the dark matter, atoms and "dark energy or/and photons" in a 6x10^9 years old universe‏. I need the %s to verify my calculations: 50.165% Dark Matter, 40.28% Dark Energy/photons and 9.552% Atoms Plz note I need the % of Atoms and % dark matter been separated from the % of photons and neutrinos. In the Cosmology standard model, Dark Energy only appeared 7billion years ago, but I have hard time to believe it, Dark Energy cannot just appeared out of nowhere. So I came up with a hypothesis where Dark Energy existed from the beginning of the universe and photons aka light or/and matter with no mass conceal th…

I've read that the voyager has encounted magnetic fields at the edge of our solar system. I'm wondering if these magnetic fields might exist around all or most solar systems, and if they might or probably exist in denser quantites around the edge of a galaxie? I wonder if the dynamics of these fields might create some kind of algorythmic structure of energy flow, and how or if the energy builds and releases in some fashion.