Starship Asterisk*

Are most meteor showers the result of earth passing through comet dust?

geckzilla -- don't worry that you don't have a good analogy. The simulations you gave say it all quite eloquently. I'm really impressed by the video that you credit to Frank Summers, that helps validate the simulation. I wonder how many galaxy interactions astronomers have actually observed in space...

The text says "hot gas in pink ..." But what are the brighter red "dots" ? They seem to have an interesting distribution around El Gordo in this image. My favorite part of this beautiful image (so far) is at the top center. In the middle of a triangle of 3 of those red dots it lo...

... But I can never look again at a photo of a galaxy and not explicitly wonder how many "people" I am looking at! Thank you, Kepler mission! ... There may certainly be intelligent species in NGC 2841, but we will never know. ... Ann Ann -- There are lots of solid reasons to make that sta...

http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/3D-printed_replicas_of_Hans_Schlegel_s_EVA_glove-580x385.jpg Handy! 3-D Printing Could Build Moon Bases And Improve Items Used In Space by Elizabeth Howell, Universe Today, April 15, 2014 :arrow: <<Two 3-D replicas of a glove worn by E...

I spoke too soon. Although we were socked in with a spring snowstorm most of the evening on 14.04.14, by midnight it had passed and the clouds soon parted over my location in Central Illinois. That eclipse was utterly fantastic. Best I've ever seen.

Hmmmm ... I wasn't aware that Chris had a sarcastic side. That's a new APOD discovery in itself. Tonight, I see our weather is gloomy and overcast. I was able to predict that weeks ago, based on the high correlation between neat events like a full Lunar eclipse with Mars in opposition nearby, and we...

. . . the Dawn spacecraft produces a constant thrust such that it continues to spiral out. You will watch the Earth eventually catch up and pass you (angularly) from below (i.e., closer to the sun) but it will take somewhat longer. Thanks for the reply, and verification! I had heard of an ion thrus...

Okay, speaking of math, and the Dawn spacecraft, I have a very basic orbital mechanics question. Actually, I'm not wanting the equations, just the qualitative description. Let's say I'm the Dawn spacecraft and I'm orbiting the Sun, a little ways in front of or behind the Earth, but in an identical o...

All right, the colors are vigorous, vivid, vibrant, vivacious, and virile. (Oops, a 4-year-old got ahold of a Thesaurus!) I'm curious about what is going on right at the center where the reds turn to yellow. Is that a proto-star? What does it take, about 10 million years to condense? I'm struck by h...

When I look at this image, I have to say:
"Whoa, surf's up, dude!"

Does the Sun have rings?

Nice image. :thumb_up: One question/comment: In the description, it says an adventurous photographer (pictured).... /snip which I took to mean - the photographer is included in the image, however I do not see him/her. (Maybe my browser settings are off enough that I cannot see the entire image. Doe...

Lovely picture of El Capitan and a beautiful fall evening. And it makes a great statement. The one light at the bottom of the "exclamation point" is what I would have expected. It looks like a climber that is tucked-in for the night. The other sounds scary. Trying to climb the nose in the ...

Anthony Barreiro wrote: . . . assuming your planet uses low-wattage, fully-shielded, downward-pointing, warm-spectrum nighttime lighting!

I loved that.

Excellent suggestion, Nathan! I note it is shaped more like a football than just having a polar ring. I wonder if a passing galaxy (or a galaxy that was destroyed while attempting to pass) was actually successively stripped of material in a sequence, producing something like the threads on a screw. ...

Things about this that should no longer be viewed as "theory" but as rock solid fact: (1) It's a rock. (2) It's from Mars. (3) It was dislodged by one of Opportunity's wheels. (4) This is part of the indentation in the ground where it used to lay: Thanks for that additional info. Although...

I've looked for updates on this from NASA. I would think the rock and its suspected original location would be of great interest to them. Yet, I haven't seen anything. Has anyone else? No. I think it is only of moderate interest. They've aimed some instruments at it to examine the mineralogy, but b...

I've looked for updates on this from NASA. I would think the rock and its suspected original location would be of great interest to them. Yet, I haven't seen anything. Has anyone else?

As noted, there are distant galaxies visible through NGC 5101. The one at about 7 o'clock appears face-on, and very similar to NGC 5101 itself. It even seems to have darker, more rarified streaks within it. So what I find interesting is that if we are looking through this distant one, we are peerin...

. . . This galaxy is somewhat bland and poor in star formation. Or, to put it somewhat differently, this flying saucer lacks its red nebulae brake lights. Ann -- Just wondering. Do edge-on galaxies show us less nebulae in general, or can we see them fine in most edge-on galaxies? I'm wondering if t...

This is an especially beautiful image. Does anyone else see the face (and more) of a rat in it? The nose would be just to the right of the beam, all lit up. You can also see a dark eye and ear to the right of the nose and a light ear above it. It is as if the rat is facing the source of the jets and...

Anyone know why would a butte form the hard caprock in the first place? Why is it that there is enough caprock to keep such a large formation standing while everything else erodes away around it? I probably should let a geologist give an expert answer, but ... When you see those large structures st...

Excellent chart!

I think it's fantastic in any case. Opportunity just wanted to show up the newcomer, Curiosity and steal the limelight for a bit. So, if it turns out to be an overturned rock, then it makes me wonder ... Opportunity is not very good at doing that sort of thing on purpose, is it? I mean can it do tha...