Starship Asterisk*

But, speaking of question marks, the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is, as many of us know, 42. Now we just have to figure out what the question is. https://www.allformarathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/42.jpg The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Do...

Instead, I'll show you my favorite Illustris simulation! :D Cosmic web Illustris TNG.png Visualization of the intensity of shock waves in the cosmic gas (blue) around collapsed dark matter structures (orange/white). Similar to a sonic boom, the gas in these shock waves is accelerated with a jolt wh...

We're delving into philosophy here, but if two things measured by certain data are identical, what difference does the context make, other than to affect perception (aka, the effect of the whole on human senses)? You're saying that the context is also part of the data? A bullet in a gun is definite...

I make a case that the square values are different because of context. To extract the data out of its context, yes, there is a certain raw value that is identical. But to extract the data and proclaim "puzzle solved" is to abandon the context; in effect, this is abandoning data. Basically...

I make a case that the square values are different because of context. To extract the data out of its context, yes, there is a certain raw value that is identical. But to extract the data and proclaim "puzzle solved" is to abandon the context; in effect, this is abandoning data. Basically ...

Yes, Ganymede's resemblance to the moon is striking.
Could the detail posted by Whiskeybreath be an object that broke up prior to surface impact?

http://cosmicneighbors.net/crab.htm Copyright: Mike Keith "To the upper right of the nebula is a star in motion. This is the magnitude-11.5 star TYC 1309-1640-1 and it has a high proper motion of about 1/4 arcseconds per year. The image scale here is about 1 arcsecond per pixel, so from 1955 t...

When the black hole which is supposed to be at the center of galaxy is shown bigger than entire galaxy.. I'm sure it's got to do with different (and digital) zooms of Chandra and JWST just to make it easier for viewers ? It is beyond my capability of understanding how the telescopes and then proces...

I'm not sure those lines of galaxies you're positing in this APOD of the Perseus cluster aren't just created by your brain finding meaning in random points. Also, I thought the real "galaxy filaments" were on the order of the size of entire clusters and superclusters, and wouldn't control...

Visually it appears as if the galaxies in this cluster are indeed arranged along filaments. perseus, perceived filaments.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Large-scale_structure_of_light_distribution_in_the_universe.jpg/800px-Large-scale_structure_of_light_distribution_in_...

Besides the nice galaxies Ann pointed out above, this odd looking "three bead" galaxy caught my eye: odd looking galaxy in the fornax cluster - three beads.png I browsed the CDS Portal - I'm fairly sure the galaxy you're referring to is NGC 1380, position: 03 36 27.828 -34 58 33.85. The c...

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:54 pm

Pastorian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:18 pm

Sa Ji Tario wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:58 pm figures that remind me of "Guernica"

cool

Nice! I couldn't really see any resemblance at all before your post.

Thanks Johnnydeep, great call by Sa Ji Tario.

Sa Ji Tario wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:58 pm figures that remind me of "Guernica"

cool

Another anthropomorphic possibility:
In other news today, NGC 3808A Corp. continued its hostile takeover bid of NGC 3808B, Inc., which sought an antitrust injunction to block the merger. The two are expected to battle it out in InterGalactic Court over the next 10K millenia.

Chris Alex wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:13 pm In a universe where everything is pushed apart until all freezes to death, mergers are not duels but rebirths! - Galaxies, unite!
Spectacular sight..

Reminds me of the G.K. Chesterton quotable: "Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline."

Inscription at top of flip side of plate, dated October 5th/6th. It was a Friday/Saturday night.

Plate image inverted

So the two bright blue stars at the top of the pic are obviously stars from our galaxy but the stream of stars behind the right star looks to be an irregular galaxy. Is that correct? How far distant is that from the star in front? Also, is the smudge of stars that deceptively seems to be trailing u...

The wow factor for me is the precision with which OSIRIS-REx is operating, namely tagging an asteroid as opposed to crashing into it (crashing = less precise), then dropping off of payload and redeploying to another asteroid. It would seem space missions have squarely moved from the one-and-done mod...

See related article in the new July issue of National Geographic

Seeing the proximity of these (and the third of the Leo Triplet) to each other, I wonder how our own sense of the universe would be different if we had nearby galaxies that would be so visible to the naked eye, and cover so much of the night sky. Would we be a little less self centered? Or would th...

After visiting APOD this morning, by coincidence I happened upon this article: SpaceX to Launch First Private Craft to Space Station Which lead to the question: when retiring the space shuttle fleet without ready replacement, was NASA and/or US gov't expecting (or encouraging) the private sector to ...

Supergiant stars are very tenuous. Planets could be orbiting inside of them. (They are still very dense at their cores, but have huge, tenuous outer layers.) I expect that this would explain the nebula around the star as described by today's image caption: Antares is seen on the left surrounded by ...