Starship Asterisk*

Todays image illustrates the importance of being able to see subtitle contrast. Most observations of this region would reveal nothing but monotonous oversaturation; hiding the true complexity of what we see. Such observations may lead one to believe there is nothing worth studying here. However, the...

Gas clouds can have their orbits modified just like stars can. I think we sometimes see actual structures like spiral arms perturbed by tidal forces, so we end up with tight tails rather than big blobs. That also stirs things up, forming shocks and regions of high density, and that often results in...

Since they broached the subject, where IS the "scene of the accident" in this field? At the lower end of larger left star trail, or at end of smaller right trail? I cannot make sense why there are two antipodal star trails. The Newton in me knows they cannot reverse course on their own. T...

So the general consensus is that the claims of this paper are , Inflated?

....Ah, the Cambrian Explosion of multicellular, complex life. There is an explanation that doesn't involve luck or random chance for these things, and for ... ...But stating the explanaton is not permitted here... Of course it is, the planet had just emerged from an extreme extinction event. See S...

alter-ego wrote:There's a question about how many, if any, stars are visible in today's APOD, ... ... there are roughly 50 to 100 specks that don't map to stars (including the foreground specks).

YOU MISSED ONE!

Chris Peterson wrote:

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:The "dry and empty of water for billions of years" comment made me curious if we have ever dated Martian rocks? Cal Tech was up to the task.

Caltech.

NOVA did a show covering sprites last year http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/edge-of-space.html

Ok, we are not accustomed to seeing a brightly lit objects with stars in the background. Has the overexposure in this image revealed background stars or are the flecks of light surrounding the comet from some other source?

So, since we can take this as evidence that the universe has been cranking out new planetary systems for well over 10 billion years, Fermi's paradox is stronger now than when he first asked: Where is everybody? (By "everybody" he meant alien civilizations.) I am wondering if a planetary s...

Finally! A space formation named after me!

LocalColor wrote:Oh my, it has its own "moonlet". Great APOD today.

Has anyone seen any discussion on how M44's encounter with the Earth/Moon system may have perturbed the orbit of the "moonlet" ?

I'm trying to figure out the patterns in the asteroid trail... it's not clear if this is a single exposure or multiple. why does the track wiggle around like it does? (magnify it to see what I mean) More information would be useful. Here is my educated guess. The image was made with a single-shot c...

Mary Gauthier - Long Way To Fall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znHZVc1fns0 Mary Gauthier - The Sugar Cane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVWsBDaeSOc Mary Gauthier - Drag Queens In Limousines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZ-rIpIPqw Mary has an amazing story. The story in this song about her st...

Terra Firma - Orphans and Vandals
Better with a high fidelity recording and LOUD!

I understand why there's a guardrail around the joystick, but I'm having a hard time visualizing how the joystick could be handled effectively with the guardrail in place - and the guardrail looks very securely bolted on. I guess it's not meant to be gripped.... Here's a short video with Chris Hadf...

It really looks SO unfamiliar! There is a big lesson in that: if you think you know anything, about anything, well, you only know one small fraction of it. Even applies to people! The more you know of a complex subject, the more questions you have and the more aware of your lack of knowledge you be...

I never could have imagined that in my own lifetime I would see the surface of Titan! Less than 400 years after Titan's discovery by Christian Huygens! http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_history/Christiaan_Huygens_Discoverer_of_Titan But, consider how short a period it was between the i...

One problem with presenting this simulator as a game which ends when a planet is ejected is that we lose sense of the evolutionary nature of planetary systems. In real life, no system with more than two bodies is stable- the mathematics of chaos is present, and all such systems will eventually fall...

Ok, to score high go for the Habitability Bonus, 27,378,457 in 500.2 years...

Over 244,000 in 500.1 years. Clicked to register the score and the program said it was #1 ! Woo Hoo !

Chris Peterson wrote:With only rare exceptions, stars are blackbody radiators-...

Chris,

Can you tell us what kind of star would be the exception and not be a blackbody radiator ?

I like the caption here. :D I like the picture too. Tell me, what is the Running Man wearing on his head? Could it be something like this , except the long end of his hat is being lifted up by the air pressure inside the nebula as he is running? :wink: Ann Why does it have to be a running man ?

How common are they at 28°N ?

Given our theories on how all this got started this should be expected. Nothing spooky here.