The word ‘degeneracy’ has a central place in physics. In my last post I narrated the fearsome battle between two powerful opponents: gravity, which attempts to compress a white dwarf into smaller and smaller space, and electron degeneracy pressure, which aims to counteract this compression. A ‘degenerate’ is not something you would want to call your friend, so you’ll want to back yourself up with knowledge that you can gain from reading this post.
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Two weeks ago, we explored the implications of blurry marbles (or quarbles). Today, we’ll proceed by taking a look at one of the most significant consequences of a blurry reality (i.e. quantum mechanics), the Pauli exclusion principle.
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Unlike typical transit data in which dips in the light curve occur to a constant proportion and at regular intervals, the star KIC 8462852 certainly posed a peculiarity. There must be something in the way…
Alright this will be my final post on black holes, I promise. Unless you want more, that is? Actually that’s a silly question, of course you’d like more. But unfortunately you’re not getting any, so make sure you savour this one. It’s going to be… astronomical… (I’ll see myself out).
Perhaps you’ve been working for a long period of time and you’re suddenly craving some nuts. Oh, how convenient, there happens to be a container of mixed nuts next to you. But as you open the lid, you make a horrifying discovery – all those large, pesky Brazil nuts have wormed their way to the top (unless you love Brazil nuts in which case it will be a more pleasing discovery).
The Nexus 