3 ms·
That makes it seem like gravitationally, the anchor star would just be expanding. My intuition thinks the remaining star gets slammed by debris before the direc
by Steel_Phoenix 8y ago
That makes it seem like gravitationally, the anchor star would just be expanding. My intuition thinks the remaining star gets slammed by debris before the direction and strength of the anchor dissipates enough to launch it away, though my confidence in my stellar intuition is low.
- whatshisface 8y agoYour intuition contains some truth: according to Gauss's law, the gravitation of the expanding nova shell shouldn't change at all until it passes by its surviving companion. The matter expanding away from the companion will gravitate less, but that will be canceled out by the increased attraction to the matter expanding towards the companion. Really, we're just assuming the hot, dense, and small dwarf can sustain the licking it gets when the remnant hits it. The smallness helps it get hit by less material, moreso if it's far away. It's gravitationally bound so it won't shatter - the most you could do to disassemble it would be to boil off its matter by raising it all to escape velocity. It takes a lot of energy to do that.