Starship Asterisk*

All diffraction is a quantum effect. That is, while it can be approximately described by classical theory, in certain regimes it is best explained using QM. A rigorous analysis of Mie scattering and the color effects seen in a lunar corona is best handled with QM. I think it is slightly misleading ...

Hi, can someone please explain to me (or just post a link) why this is a quantum effect? I am used to thinking of diffraction of light as something that can be explained using classical wave physics in the Fraunhofer regime (i.e. Airy disks and all that) and so I don't see the quantum nature here. A...

I like the image, and I do appreciate the work you do to give us one of these every day, but why do you guys keep recycling old captions?? This is the same caption as the 2006 image of the same nebula...

To me, the tidal tail is going downward and to the left. I guess the picture didn't get loaded according to the description. Still a nice picture though. :clap: No, the reason is that once again, they recycled an old description (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070727.html) and barely changed it for th...

This is a cool picture, but the image description is copied and pasted from an image of the same nebula from 2009: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090802.html

Poor form, man.