RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

The hottest 'normal' stars we observe are blue hypergiant stars which are many times more massive than our sun. Eta Carinae is 7500 light-years away and about 35,000 K (degrees) - about 10 times hotter than the sun!

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

What is the hottest sun in the universe? – Alex, Cambridge #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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The Higgs relates to the origin of mass. Astronomy tells us most mass is not like what we see, there is other ‘dark’ matter. We don’t know if that gets its mass from the Higgs. So astronomy and particle physics tryr to understand the nature of true reality. We have a lot to learn

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

How do the discovery of 'Higgs Boson' influence astronomy? – Dhaka,Bangladesh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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What is the hottest sun in the universe? – Alex, Cambridge #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

How do the discovery of 'Higgs Boson' influence astronomy? – Dhaka,Bangladesh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

The first exoplanet discovered was in orbit round the star 51Pegasi. But it wasn't found by us, but by our colleague Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor who were both at Geneva at the time.They were awarded the Nobel prize this year for that discovery.

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

What was the first planet beyond the solar system that you discovered? – Conor, Cork City #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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What was the first planet beyond the solar system that you discovered? – Conor, Cork City #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

Most stars leave behind a remnant star – white dwarf, neutron star, black hole – when they die, so the total number is increasing slowly. But space-time acceleration means the fraction of the Universe we can see is shrinking. Our visible Universe has fewer visible stars.

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

Is the number of stars in the universe increasing or decreasing, or staying roughly the same? – Amelia, Grampound Road #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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Is the number of stars in the universe increasing or decreasing, or staying roughly the same? – Amelia, Grampound Road #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

Fusion of elements heavier than iron requires energy to be added. When a star explodes as a supernova, lots of energy is suddenly available to form heavier elements. Other processes inside evolved stars also allow atomic nuclei to capture neutrons and form heavy elements. AH

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

Fusion in stars ends at Iron. But how do the other elements form? – Dhaka,Bangladesh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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Many other (exo-)planets have atmospheres - they form naturally after a planet is born, but are sometimes stripped away. We can use their chemical signatures to look for planets with atmospheres similar to Earth, in a quest to find exoplanets that can host life as we know it

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

The Earth has an atmosphere, but do any other planets do as well? – Samanthi, Edinburgh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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The Earth has an atmosphere, but do any other planets do as well? – Samanthi, Edinburgh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

Fusion in stars ends at Iron. But how do the other elements form? – Dhaka,Bangladesh #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

@Ginger_gringo @royalsociety In terms of what that tells us about the early Universe, there is not that much that we can learn from individual galaxies that are so far away (look at the picture of GN-z11, the red blob in the box, it isn't great!)

@Ginger_gringo @royalsociety Hi Jimbo. Good question, at the moment the galaxy that we have detected that is furthest away is called GN-z11. We are seeing it at a time when the Universe was around 3% of its current age. There are different ways to define distance in an expanding Universe, but it is far away!

How hot are neutron stars? – Anonymous #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

The short answer: we don’t know, because we can’t recreate such extreme conditions in a lab. Astronomers study the masses and radii of pulsars, which are rapidly rotating neutron stars, to see how strongly their cores can be squeezed, and infer the state of the material

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

Are there any solids in neutron stars? – Anonymous #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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An incomplete analogy is the surface of a ballon. Imagine this as a 2D space (ignoring the fact that it is embedded in a 3D space). As the ballon inflates the space between two points increases but the surface of the ballon is not expanding into anything. It's just stretching.2/2

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

The Universe is everything there is so there is nothing outside it into which it could expand. The best way to think about the cosmic expansion is to imagine that, as time passes, the space between galaxies increases. 1/2

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In the Milky Way about one star is born each year. When the Milky Way was young maybe 10 stars were born each year. This really just tells us how short is a year compared to the age of the Universe. GG

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

How many stars are born and die each year? – Amelia, Grampound Road #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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Are there any solids in neutron stars? – Anonymous #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

We don't know, as we only know a very small fraction of all the stars in the universe. Within our galaxy and its satellites we find stars that are as massive as 60x the mass of the Sun, and stars near the their life that are so big they would fill the Earth orbit around the Sun

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

What is the biggest sun in the universe? – Alex, Cambridge #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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The Universe is everything there is so there is nothing outside it into which it could expand. The best way to think about the cosmic expansion is to imagine that, as time passes, the space between galaxies increases. 1/2

RS Space Experts @ExpertsRs

6 years ago

What is space expanding into? – Anonymous #RSAskTheSpaceXperts

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