Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070822.html I assume the stars with diffration spikes are in our own galaxy, but are all the other stars in the LMC? And the cluster on the left edge center (9:30), is that in the LMC? There seem to be a lot of small star clusters in this picture, were they all fo...

Professionally done, the image would look as follows: http://www.lonestarobservatory.org W Barry Smith Lone Star Observatory And why is this so much more professional? Because you did it? or because you paid to have it done? I liked the affects, thought it was a "professionally" executed ...

Would Daylight Savings Time account for the extra hour??

(1) I was wondering about the mechanism that causes the variability. On Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_variable ), it says the variability is caused by repeated contraction and expansion of the star. Mira's variability, from nearly invisible to magnitude 3.5, seems to be extraordinar...

I see lots of images in full color but wonder what the 'true' colors of the objects might be? I.e. what would they look like to me say if I were visiting them? Depends on the object. If the explanation does not say "false color", it is probably at least an approximation of the true colors...

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070806.html

It's just an asterism.

See Anomaly in APOD 0807 and Has anyone seen my coffee???

Borrowing from another thread, "Has anyone seen my coffee??"

orin stepanek wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060314.html
It looks like the giant space worm is going to eat the galaxy.
Orin

If you check the apod, the circle of stars is not so circular, and the center isn't so blank.

jimmysnyder wrote:It's either a zero or the letter O. Here is some more of the code:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051118.html

Yes, I think 37 is probably the real answer to "life, the universe, and everything," not 42.

Sorry about my dumb question I did not realize the Helix Nebula is outside our galaxy. I should do more research before posting... Thanks! As one of the closest planetary nebulae, I don't think it is outside our galaxy. 700 light-years is not much, astronomically speaking. Some of the stars you see...

inertnet wrote:...In Dione's region, there must be a significant number orbiting in the opposite direction...

With asteroids traveling in the opposite direction of Dione, there would be a "head on" collision and the resulting impact would be on the leading side, not the trailing side.

I would think the rings would be elliptical, much the same as the orbits of the planets and asteroids around Sol. One focus of the ellipse would be the center of mass of the inner pair of stars. The motion of the inner pair around their center of gravity would probably perturb the rings, but stabili...

As the stars are in the foreground, they can't very well be an effect of lensing.

Dont be stupid, if it were not flat, all ocean water would stream off the planet. Not to mention that elephants would have hard time trying to hold the earth balanced on their backs. Don't be silly. If they can stand on the back of a turtle, of course they can balance a spherical earth. I just don'...

Stars are red or blue because the star's temperature makes the majority of the light in that band. Our star (the sun) is yellow. All stars emit all colors. The spectral absorption lines are independent of temperature. They are a function of elements and molecules at the surface. Red and Blue shift ...

So, the Virgo Cluster, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000220.html , must be of an intermediate age. Although it is dominated by huge ellipticals, plenty of spirals are present, and there is noticable interaction (especially in Markarian's Chain, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050316.html ), ...

Is the degree of interaction between member galaxies of the Hercules Cluster unusual? Is there an explanation for this high degree of interaction? As seen in today's apod http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070719.html , the Hercules Cluster is full of galaxy mergers and interactions, even though it'...

An interesting site for all you wannabe astronomers. Help classify millions of unclassified galaxies at http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ . Welcome to GalaxyZoo , the project which harnesses the power of the internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies. By taking part, you'll not only be contr...

FieryIce wrote:Wouldn’t NLC’s occur in both hemispheres like auroras do?

To quote the explanation from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070705.html

... The clouds form over the poles in the corresponding summer season ...

This would suggest to me that both poles are involved.

disregard

It is my understanding that due to the long exposure times required, b&w imaging provides the best contrast and relative exposure values. See an explanation of the process:

http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/glossary/lrgb.html

... I would love to see an APOD that shows the difference between an untouched versus touched up pic of a galaxy or nebula, for example. So often we see that the pic is a "false color image." I understand that this is so that we can make out what we're looking at better. I'm not an astron...

I was wondering that myself. It looks like a bow shock wave, but what's the source? the cat's eye is in the wrong direction. Maybe the star in the upper left corner of your blowup.

As for the comet shape, I had missed that. Looks like that region of space may be busier than it looks.

Perhaps the Ring Nebula
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040704.html

or perhaps supernova remnant Cassiopeia A
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050615.html

or one of my favorites "The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi"
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060714.html

Stephen Hawking outlines most of the major points in "A Brief History of Time" using language even most laymen can understand.

Harry I agree with cosmo_uk and nasa that the big bang (singular) happened every where at once. So to state the converse of what I laughingly said earlier. "What if our big bang was simply sombody else's black hole?" It wasn't meant to be serious, maybe a theme for a SF novel. I realize th...