Starship Asterisk*

Sheesh, I know it is the D-Day anniversary and all, but couldn't you have found a more gentler headline for today than Galaxy Is Doomed the Sky is Falling!

I noticed an interesting fact in the description. That Venus was approximately 180 million kilometres away. We usually think that Venus is the closest planet to Earth, although according to planetary orbits sometimes Mars gets that distinction or sometimes even the planet Mercury. However even thoug...

I wonder if this is a mere coincidence but in the MeerKAT Galactic Center portrait, isn't it strange that the objects in the northern section are objects named after airy, heavenly things such as harp, Christmas Tree and pelican, whereas in the southern section, with the exception of the radio bubbl...

When some people say a matter of minutes I usually don't think they intend to take over 4 hours. But it is just a matter of semantics. The Sun's circumference is roughly 4,370,000 km. So if the Moreton Wave's speed is 1 million kmph then it would take over 4 hours to circle the Sun. Semantically you...

Why does it appear that a section of the Sun has been cut away so that we can see the clouds on the other side of the Sun? We cannot see through the Sun! Shouldn't the top left section of the Sun be dark (not full of clouds) from the Earth blocking our view so we should see nothing but a darkened a...

Maybe it is a defect of my computer monitor but to me the central black shadow still looks a little brighter to me than the surrounding black at the edges of the photo. It even looks almost a shade of brown compared to the black at the edges. Although it is impossible for the star light behind the s...

Cool picture I've never seen before. This must be the month for unusual planet shadows. Here is a shadow from the solar system's largest moon. Not to be outdone one of the smallest moons is captured just this month eclipsing the Sun. Phobos. (Although this is the reverse of a shadow on the Sun.) acc...

You are using nautical miles to measure altitude?... Anyway, cool image and thanks for the 'Earth Now' link. NASA is using nautical miles not necessarily for altitude but they use it for charting longitude and latitude on a globe. It just so happens that a nautical mile is 1/60th of a minute of arc...

I have often wondered why we have put so much emphasis upon a manned trip to Mars with little said about a more developed lunar station. Is there a reason I have missed? Well that would depend on who "we" are. I naturally assumed based on the subject of today's APOD that "we" is...

Hi folks! I don't mean to be alarmist, but I followed this planetary lineup for the next few days on the Stellarium sky map, and the planets Venus and Jupiter are getting closer and closer together that they are going to collide on April 30th 2022! Maybe not collide because they will pass apart agai...

If the Space Shuttle and Space Station remain in the mesophere, is it inaccurate to refer to them with the 'Space' label? You could also ask IF wishes were horses? The Space Station isn't in the mesosphere. It's is several hundred kilometres above that. The top of the mesosphere or mesopause is als...

Maybe this is counterintuitive but I recall in science class that rocks shaped by a water ocean over billions of years are usually worn smooth. So why is it if there was an ocean in that basin that the rocks higher up in the climb are expected to be worn smooth by water but yet the rocks on the bott...

Pardon me if I add my two cents, but the ESA's "zoom video into LHA 120-N11" located under the "visible on the upper right" link clearly zooms into NGC 1769 which I recognize thanks to Ann's Tony Tanner illustrated photo. By the way, I was surprised that as we approached the LMC ...

Speaking of temporal deformity, I don't think any of the Apod pictures are live. I mean photographed in this exact time called The Present. Suppose I had waited an hour from now to sign on. Would the live Sun still look like that? I mean usually as the day goes on that the sun gets brighter from the...

Certainly easy to spot where we will have our permanently staffed base, and the path to follow to collect ice every day. Less clear is what the inhabitants will do with themselves every day. Gather rocks? I would suggest build space telescopes in that permanently dark region and hunt for new exopla...

Are there stars within that amazing starscape that are closer together than our sun is to our closest neighbor? If so, how much closer? It should be interesting to note that although the closest star to our Sun is Proxima Centauri at a distance of about 4.25 light years, note that our Sun is NOT th...

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Tue Mar 29, 2022 4:34 am Where is Saturn in this photo?

Depends on what a few days ago means, but Saturn according to Stellarium app, about 5 days ago was behind the hill on the left, slightly below and to the left of where the arrow is in Venus' orbit when you hover the mouse over the photo.

That looks truly awesome. What I find equally amazing in this picture besides the auroral corona, is how the clouds in northern Sweden, seen here above and to the side of the aurora, can mimic almost exactly the look of trees growing in the sky!? Would this be some kind of atmospheric illusion perha...

Actually I don't really like roads that run exactly east west. I prefer east west roads that are angled some 15 to 20 degrees northwest or southwest. Vice versa the other way for northeast and southeast. That way I don't get the sun in the eyes. It's okay right at sunset as pictured but it is unbear...

Hmm. I wonder why smiling rainbows are usually described as curved arcs, rather than described as curved bow shaped? Rainarcs anyone?

Big and beautiful, in a cosmic sort of way. How big would it have appeared when first sighted here on planet Earth circa 1054 AD. Presumably it has grown since then ? How mysterious it must have seemed back then. And that mysterious aspect still lingers.... ? According to this simulation for 1054, ...

Happy birthday to Persey and Genie.This is a layman question. I suppose after one year on Mars, Martian winter must be coming up soon. That is I presume they would land Perseverance on Mars in early spring to get the longest possible mission times before winter sets in. So I know that the seasons on...

Another APOD day and again I am confused by the explanation. It mainly describes the ARP 273 galaxies but it also says that nearby is the Andromeda galaxy. That must be the one in the top left corner because I don't see any other galaxies nearby. However it is said that the Andromeda is the most dis...

Chamaeleon_RobertEder.jpg A pretty photo! Am curious about it's name! :roll: In his star atlas of 1603, Johann Bayer sketched the Chamaeleon constellation based on descriptions by early sailors to the southern seas. It is bounded to the east by the constellation Musca (the fly). Bayer could see tha...

I am a bit puzzled. Today's APOD description seems to imply that the most dangerous star near Earth is Eta Carinae at 10,000 ly. Yet the very link to "dangerous star near Earth" states that the closest Supernova stars to Earth are IK Pegasi B at 150 light years and Betelgeuse at about 600 ...