Related papers: The Warped Science of Interstellar
Eclipses and pulsations are the two primary ways in which the physical properties of stars can be deduced and used to improve our understanding of stellar theory. An obvious idea is to combine these two analyses into the study of pulsating…
Galactic history is written in the white dwarf stars. Their surface properties hint at interiors composed of matter under extreme conditions. In the forty years since their discovery, pulsating white dwarf stars have moved from side-show…
We discuss how developments in physics often imply in the need that spacetime acquires an increasingly richer and complex structure. General Relativity was the first theory to show us the way to connect space and time with the physical…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
Few scientific discoveries have captured the public imagination like the explosion of exoplanetary science during the past two decades. This work has fundamentally changed our picture of Earth's place in the Universe and led NASA to make…
The interstellar medium (ISM) is the material that fills the space between the stars in all galaxies; it is a multi-phase medium in pressure equilibrium, with densities and temperatures covering over 6 orders of magnitude. Although…
It is shown that space travel, even in the most distant future, will remain confined to our own planetary system, and a similar conclusion will hold forth for any other civilization, no matter how advanced it might be, unless those…
Astronomers occasionally detect an object having unexpected shape, unexplainable photometry, or unprecedented spectra that are inconsistent with our contemporary knowledge of the universe. Upon careful assessment, many of these anomalies…
The Interstellar Medium (ISM) is a complex, multi-phase system, where the history of the stars occurs. The processes of birth and death of stars are strongly coupled to the dynamics of the ISM. The observed chaotic and diffusive motions of…
Inflation is a bold and expansive extension of the Standard Cosmology. It holds the promise to extend our understanding of the Universe to within 10^{-32}sec of the big bang and answer most of the pressing questions in cosmology. Its…
We investigate the thermal condensation caused by a massive object that passes through the interstellar medium with high velocity, and propose a mechanism for creating a filamentary gaseous object, or interstellar contrail. Our main result…
Why bother with asteroseismology while studying exoplanets? There are several answers to this question. Asteroseismology and exoplanetary sciences have much in common and the synergy between the two opens up new aspects in both fields.…
The accelerated expansion of the universe is the most debatable cosmological scenario in the last two decades. Looking for the proper explanation of this scenario, researchers have presented a lot of proposals to discuss it. However,…
We discuss the outstanding issues of the interstellar medium which will depend on the application of knowledge from plasma physics. We particularly advocate attention to recent developments in experimental plasma physics, and urge that the…
The evolution of irregular galaxies is examined from two points of view: on the one hand, models of galactic chemical evolution have been computed and their predictions compared with the corresponding observational data on the element…
1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov are the first macroscopic interstellar objects to be detected in the solar system. Their discovery has triggered a tsunami of scientific interest regarding the physical properties, dynamics and origin of the…
This chapter reviews theoretical work on the stellar dynamics of galaxy disks. All the known collective global instabilities are identified, and their mechanisms described in terms of local wave mechanics. A detailed discussion of warps and…
In this manuscript, I discuss the possibility of sending a small probe to the closest black hole with the goal of addressing some fundamental questions of modern physics. Are astrophysical black holes the Kerr black holes predicted by…
While the concept of the block universe has a most respectable scientific provenance, many physicists nevertheless do not accept that future events are just as embedded in spacetime as are those of the present and the past. This paper…
Experience in exploring our own solar system has shown that direct investigation of planetary bodies using space probes invariably yields scientific knowledge not otherwise obtainable. In the case of exoplanets, such direct investigation…