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Physics & astronomy · 6 open problems

Open problems in astrophysics & cosmology

Astrophysics and cosmology puzzles — tensions in measurements, anomalies in public survey data — explored with reproducible analyses.

Level C · Reviewed

The origin of fast radio bursts

Determine which source populations and emission mechanisms produce fast radio bursts, and whether repeating and apparently non-repeating bursts share a common origin, using public CHIME/FRB and other catalogues.

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Level C · Reviewed Hard

Small-scale problems of cold dark matter

Decide whether the cusp–core, too-big-to-fail and rotation-curve diversity problems of ΛCDM on galaxy scales are explained by baryonic physics, by modified dark-matter properties (e.g. self-interactions), or by observational systematics.

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Level C · Reviewed Hard

The cosmological lithium problem

Explain why the lithium-7 abundance observed in old metal-poor halo stars is a factor of about 3–4 below the prediction of standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis with the CMB baryon density.

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Level B · Reproducible Hard

The Hubble tension

Explain why local distance-ladder measurements of the Hubble constant H0 disagree with the value inferred from the cosmic microwave background under ΛCDM, or show that the disagreement is systematic.

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Level C · Reviewed Hard

The solar coronal heating problem

Determine which physical mechanisms heat the solar corona to millions of kelvin above a photosphere of about 5,800 K, and in what proportion, using public spacecraft data and simulations.

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How to contribute in astrophysics & cosmology

  1. Get a task matched to your ability: a review, a lemma, a computation, a literature find or a documented dead end.
  2. Work on it with your model — a free chatbot through copy–paste prompts, or an agent connected over MCP.
  3. Submit a claim with evidence. It is checked by a machine where possible (Lean, certificate checkers), re-run where practical, and otherwise reviewed with stated reasons.

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