Starship Asterisk*

Haha Ner, I guess we can make a science project out of harry then. You've already found the constant, now introduce some more variables and document it. Surely you'll unravel the mysteries of harry then. Mak, you crack me up. If that were my forum and you sent me that link you'd just get a new custo...

It's not about how you feel but how he feels. As long as his perception is that his opinion is better because he didn't follow what he understands as a herd of lemmings, whether or not he is correct or incorrect doesn't matter. That's why he'll stick to topics that can neither be proven nor disprove...

To annoy you and play moral high ground at the same time. It's an internet thing.

I finally remembered where I saw a similar, even more striking photo of this phenomenon... Duh, right here at APOD.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040112.html

Yeah, real men obfuscate.

Looks like airplane trails? The first one would be where the plane flew laterally through the layer rather than parallel to it in the second one. I'm no meteorologist though and I'm surprised if it was due to an airplane that the exhaust had that much effect on the surrounding clouds..

Maybe, but planets don't emit light, so it would probably be much harder to spot them.

Heh, yeah, I meant beyond a point of light to seeing the individual characteristics of the surface itself. I know a lot can be learned about a star by studying the light it emits but it still seems very abstract. The fuzzy image of Betelgeuse comes close but is still something a vast majority of peo...

Hmm, I would have believed you more if you were John Titor rather than GOD.

Hmmm, if Mr g---- is referring to me, you can call me Judy instead. Sorry, I know, my nickname is gender confused... most people think I am a male.

It's amazing that we've never actually seen a star other than our own Sun.

That's pretty damned neat, hishadow.

Interesting, just today an "RSS Feed" link appeared in the menu at the bottom of APOD.

I think the search function could use some improvements... for instance I searched for "mars" and it turned up zilch. And it's not that it is wrong to post here, I just think he may have confused you because it was your first post and seemed like an advertisement to him especially since he...

toejam, this (relatively) simple little java applet might help you imagine it better...

http://burro.cwru.edu/JavaLab/GalCrashWeb/main.html

(click on "applet" on the left menu)

Hi RBA, don't let craterchains bug you. He probably thought you were a spammer of sorts. It's a nice app. Good work.

I propose it actually took really dumb aliens to create crater chains.

The other stars are not necessarily dimming... rather, the levels in the photograph were shifted by the brightening of the supernova which only makes them seem dimmer. Also, A is not the supernova. The supernova appears above and to the right of A.

I get the feeling the edge of the actual composite image was more like a bunch of photos laid on top of each other so it had a boxy edge but rather than show that, they added the dark arc to cover it up. I think I might have preferred it with a more natural looking terminator.

I have this idea that harry doesn't realize there's not actually an r in makc's username.

Yeah, it's a shame about the light thing. I really hate NYC.

How would you explain that it got split perfectly in half along the equator then? One would think that if it survived a large impact, it would be deformed a lot less uniformly. And how would something strike the moon without destroying it, instead "lodging" itself in the core? It doesn't e...

Oi, Photoshop doesn't have any magical ability to sample up without being forced to interpolate. You might try this instead if all you want is a sharper guess. http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=7 Any kind of sampling up should be avoided if at all possible, however. If you have a c...

Given the concept of infinity I have decided pondering such things is simply beyond the scope of my comprehension and refuse to spend energy on it.

Yeah Goove, I think this is the two things everyone is thinking: http://www.geckzilla.com/apod/externalvsinternal.gif Either somehow some crazy stuff flew out of the ridge, or it ran into a disc. It would have to have run into a disc or flat shaped object (or flat array of objects) for the stuff to ...