Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:21 am Life has been created in the lab from scratch.

I thought trolling was not allowed on here...

Comet NEOWISE has been rising before Sunrise in the Northeast. Comet NEOWISE will now be setting after Sunset in the Northwest. Actually the comet is circumpolar for many of us far enough north. Of course, even circumpolar objects "rise" and "set" in this context. I don't think ...

neufer wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:37 am

Prof Greg Parker wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:05 am
Should that be North East???

Comet NEOWISE has been rising before Sunrise in the Northeast.

Comet NEOWISE will now be setting after Sunset in the Northwest.

Actually the comet is circumpolar for many of us far enough north.

Has anyone been able to see this comet with your own eyes yet? A lot depends on your location. From rural skies the comet was reported as 'easily visible' with the naked eye (by Nick James of the BAA) whereas from less favored locations it requires averted vision. Photographs will give a somewhat m...

Thank you.

The description says the Belt stars are all about 1500 LY away, but according to Jim Kaler's 'Stars' Alnilam is 1.5 times farther away than the other two - http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/alnilam.html I've seen that discrepancy on other sites too. The reason for the discrepancy is the Hipparcos...

The description says the Belt stars are all about 1500 LY away, but according to Jim Kaler's 'Stars' Alnilam is 1.5 times farther away than the other two -

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/alnilam.html

I've seen that discrepancy on other sites too.

That assertion by itself makes no sense, since any delta-V is determined by momentum, not mass. If one knows the albedo of an asteroid/comet then one has a rough idea of its temperature at any given time. Assuming the jets are primarily water vapor then one know the average velocity/momentum of a w...

It's a very, very low level of outgassing required to produce this extremely small deviation in orbit. There seems to be confusion about this. The Gemini North astronomers have described the non-gravitational acceleration as 'remarkably strong' There's nothing confusing. The actual force can be ver...

It's a very, very low level of outgassing required to produce this extremely small deviation in orbit. There seems to be confusion about this. The Gemini North astronomers have described the non-gravitational acceleration as 'remarkably strong' - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018DPS....5030102D an...

Lol, NASA have had to disable comments on the youtube video. It's never aliens...

Wasn't it in 2001 that Mars was especially close to the Earth? And lots and lots of amateurs were looking forward to the opportunity of taking sharp images of the Martian surface features? And then everything was just blotted out by the planet-wide dust storm? If this ringside view of a global Mart...

moontrail wrote: ↑Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:58 am In the explanation given I miss the info about how far it`s supossed to be.

9 billion light years, I believe.

First discovered in 1878? That surprises me. It is indeed easily visible in my backyard telescope so difficult to credit that everyone from the Herschels down failed to spot it. (Assuming it has not got significantly brighter over the last 150 years).

Lovely, lovely image.

"passed unusually close to the Sun for something gravitationally unbound." I've never understood how it can be that so many comets come so very close to our sun. Can anyone explain it to me? The vast vast majority of comets come nowhere near the Sun... it's because thousands of comets do ...

The simplest way to determine that an incoming object is artificial would be to observe it changing velocity in a way that would be impossible for a 'natural' object. It could, for example, attempt to adjust its trajectory to use the Sun's gravity for a braking maneuver. Or, if braking was impossib...

Apparently this object can expect to travel several quadrillion years before encountering another star at such close proximity. Does sound a bit suspicious...

Thanks Art.

I wonder what speed would be necessary to zip straight past the sun instead of being forced into a 'hairpin turn'...?

quote ...

Thanks for replies, looks like I jumped the gun there.

Using the American dating system to name these events is confusing for us Europeans. When I look at '170814' I think '17th August 2014' as opposed to the intended meaning. Using something like '14Aug2017' would be more appropriate, especially now that a European detector is also involved.

I still don't understand if the Orion's Belt stars, M42 and the 'Orion Molecular Cloud Complex' are all part of the same stucture or not. I've seen wildly differing distance estimates for each but it seems as though Alnilam for one is maybe twice as far away as its 'companions'.

My very favorite Galaxy for some reason.

Rest in Peace Gene Cernan.