Starship Asterisk*

How about showing the UV Sun as purple? I don't understand those who say that it would be horribly wrong to show the UV Sun as purple, but OK to show it as orange. Here's another pseudocolor palette example, using today's Sun image. I think that, objectively, the palette they've chosen allows us to...

It's not my kind of image either, partly because I tend not to be all that enthusiastic about pictures of the Sun, but mostly because it really irks me that the Sun is shown as orange. The image appears to be constructed from a single channel of data made by selecting the brightest pixels in a stac...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/filament_sdo_960.jpg This image hasn't generated a lot of traffic. It's not my kind of image either, partly because I tend not to be all that enthusiastic about pictures of the Sun, but mostly because it really irks me that the Sun is shown as orange. Again. Co...

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate? Also, where was Quebec back then...

[...] The purple color of M78 in today's APOD was caused by the artistic choices of the people processing the image. The filters chosen for image may also have something to do with the palette of the final product. [...] Ann ... In principle, the Euclid color palette can be transferred very easily ...

Blue star light does not make purple reflection nebulas! 🤬 Ann The info on the ESA site says The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive colour palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/M78_Euclid_960.jpg APOD Robot wrote: ESA's new Sun-orbiting Euclid telescope recently captured the most detailed image ever of the bright star forming region M78. Really? Is that because this is a combined optical and infrared image? The purple tint in M78's ce...

This galaxy looks very unique to me. I am a student of galaxies, these look brand new to me. There appear to be ~3 rings around NGC 3169 perpendicular to its plane of rotation. Has the other galaxy circled it that many times? I would love to see the simulation of these 2 galaxies interacting. Note,...

So, I'm reading that tiny NGC 3165 is also part of this triple, and at about the same distance, yet it doesn't seem to be interacting with the other two at all, either currently or in the past. Why not? Also, I note that NGC 3165 is classified as a spiral too, which would confirm that spirals reall...

ThanX Ann Your hypothesis regarding gamma velorum is bold, but I also think correct. Regarding the two YSOs, I find MASS_J073439.9-465548 (1) particularly noteworthy. This seems to be in an intermediate stage and is almost floating freely in space. According to the classical view, stripped of its d...

N3169N3166Final1024[1].jpg Unraveling NGC 3169 Image Credit & Copyright: Christophe Vergnes, Aziz Kaeouach NGC 3169 and NGC 3166 are indeed an interesting pair of galaxies! They used to be normal spiral galaxies for sure, but now one of them (NGC 3169) is indeed "unraveling", and the ...

It seems obvious to me that it is harder to create a blue nitrogen aurora than a green or a red oxygen one. Since the blue aurora is so rare, it has to require a lot of energy to create it. But in the many pictures of auroras that have been submitted to Starship Asterisk* and other sites from the l...

I’m having a hard time finding a coherent explanation of what causes the different colors. O2 molecules split because of ultraviolet light, then the O atom picks up an “ambient” electron, (not from the sun , only “particles” come from the sun, not protons and electrons) causing emission of green li...

Okay, Color Commentator speaks. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/AuroraSweden_Strand_960_Annotated.jpg And you, Göran Strand, my fellow Swede, that's another great picture from you. You have taken so many. Of all the pictures you have taken, this is my favorite: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image...

Cometary globules are, in principle, the same kind of objects as the Pillars of Creation, and even pretty much the same objects as the little "pillars" along the rim of planetary nebulas. They are "what remains standing" after hot stars have blown away thinner material around the...

I always want to put things in perspective. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/Cg4Galaxy_CtioRector_960.jpg Why is that globule cometary? What made it open its mouth? Nearby hot bright stars, sure. What stars? I found the coordinates for CG4, which is the name of this thing, and saw that it is lo...

There is, if you ask me, too much of a good thing, or, in this case, too close of a closeup. At least for me, a poor amateur who likes Jupiter but is not a true Solar system aficionada . Let me offer this piece from the APOD as evidence for your consideration: APOD 19 May 2024 still from video.png T...

This system is pretty crazy: Strange early galaxy by JWST in May 2024.png Is the strange (starforming?) galactic arm a tidal feature? If so, something is tugging at this galaxy - what? The massive object distorting the galaxy must be off to the left. And really, what is that orange hamburger-like o...

https://hosted.ap.org/article/cd5a78e8dfab531f2fa2454d73ad2885/webb-telescope-uncovers-merger-two-massive-black-holes Black holes originated before galaxies. There are also more exciting things to see in this area of the sky that challenge our current understanding .-) https://live.staticflickr.com...

Aurora Georgia?

Sorry, I couldn't help thinking of something like this...


Ann

HST: Close up of the irregular galaxy NGC 4753 NASA/ESA | Original release 2024 May 13 https://cdn.esahubble.org/archives/images/screen/potw2420a.jpg This image is the object's sharpest view to date, showcasing Hubble’s incredible resolving power and ability to reveal complex dust structures . NGC ...

That's because you have a cheap calculator. Mine has more digits, so I know the age of this cluster to within a few milliseconds! I actually rounded it down. The Windows Calc app gives me 11,668,096.170609625164708884885897 ! Cool. So we know the age of the cluster to within a few attoseconds! Wher...

Nowhere in the information supplied do they mention the classification or number of the stars in the cluster. Yet the age of the cluster is estimated to be only 11,668,000 years. Curiously short - and no leftover nebular material. There is a clue here that tells us that this cluster really is young...

The color green does not exist outside our human eyes and brains. It is our eyes and brains that "create" the color green. Also then should be the case regarding the sun's green flash, it is an optical phenomenon, as our eyes and brains also create the color green of the sun's green flash...

If you have trouble seeing the 37... https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2405/NGC2169LRGBQHY183HR_c1024.jpg ...here it is! :D APOD 14 May 2024.png Ann P.S. Oh, and if you're looking for 42 in the sky, this might be the best that astronomy can do for you. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4...