Starship Asterisk*

Nice additional examples, Ann. Andreas Burkert and Jo ̃ao Alves in their paper do not seem to dwell on an expected solar mass, but they indicate they expect the Barnard 68 cloud could result in a star "much like our own Sun". If it begins with 2 solar masses, this is not a problem. Our Sun...

Anyone else notice the two red "stars" inhabiting the caldera (if that's the right term)? mount etna winter closup with lava.png [ EDIT: Oh, and I missed 5 more to the left! ] Nice. I hadn't noticed. The note by Dario mentioned the fumaroles, but that does not imply that there is visible ...

Dario -- thank you for adding the very enlightening notes.
This is indeed a lovely combination of art and science, suitable for framing in a gallery (or in a chapel).

Intuitively, bigger, stronger, more violent, should be somehow more terrifying. This "active galaxy" is so far beyond that, the mental image of it does not connect to my emotions. And yet I wonder. In its past, it has perhaps extinguished entire civilizations, even some that could have bee...

What is the explanation for the apparent red disc belting the star in the AI generated rendering? The illustration was made by AI. AI learns by copying. While searching for space images to be inspired by, AI undoubtedly came across pictures of Saturn, among them certainly Chesley Bonestell 's View ...

When this image was posted on APOD several years ago, I had the same problems with it as Ann. An earlier post http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=41170 suggests that the peak is ”Pilan” looking over Laupstad in the Austnesfjord. According to https://mapcarta.com/N6391608680 Pilan’s position is...

Nice image. I appreciate the version on the left that shows a realistic depiction of actual naked-eye visibility. (Also, a great advertisement for https://www.startrails.es/ .) The image on the left is nowhere near a depiction of naked-eye visibility. It offers a sense of scale, and that's all. To ...

But, Ann, what was the problem with saying "the unusual green color" : But I groaned when I read this on the Wikipedia page: The unusual green colo r is likely due to presence of diatomic carbon, chiefly around the comet's head. The unusual green color? How many color images of comet coma...

Nice image. I appreciate the version on the left that shows a realistic depiction of actual naked-eye visibility.

(Also, a great advertisement for https://www.startrails.es/.)

Incredible rendering, Darya! 231,000 frames, sounds like a vast amount of work. A reaction to looking at some of the minerals on the Moon: I realize we are increasingly looking at Luna with that human lust and industry. What have we found thus far, I wonder, that could be helpful in terms of buildin...

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 8:56 pm I had heard that story as well. All the more reason to accept/approve Sweden's NATO membership request post haste!

Ha ha! Yes, maybe if they offered some Neodymium to Turkey.

Screenshot_20230114_114104.png I'm curious about the one filament near the center of the image, which looks like an integral symbol. It seems so smooth in both the curvature and thickness. I guess it, too, is a prominence forming over a sunspot. I wonder if they tend to begin like this and then get...

Thanks for the periodic table reference, johnnydeep! I like it very much. And one more note on the origins of the elements, which I saw in the news today. ("Where we get them in a different, not-very-scientific sense.) Sweden has just reported the finding of a large deposit of some valuable rar...

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:37 pm Just thought I add this recent relevant comic from XKCD - https://xkcd.com/2723/

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/outdated_p ... ble_2x.png

Beautiful !
(I just saw it and was coming here to post it to this thread.)

I miss neufer, too.

... Maybe these blueberries are tiny rocks on Mars? https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/images/5991_640.jpg ... Ann Capture3.PNG https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/spotlight/opportunity/b19_20040304.html Capture4.PNG https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/odyssey-image_feature_295.html Ca...

Another field of stars for you, Ann.

Well, they defined "constellation" that way about a century ago. And it does make sense... before then, there was no clear way to identify where many astronomical objects were in the sky. Tiling the sky makes good sense, and the existing constellations made for a good naming system. That ...

Well, how old is 'water' then? Up to now i thought as old as the universe, which seems to be not quite accurate. If Neufer was still with us, Chris would probably quip that water is about as old as Neufer, given that there were only five elements in the Periodic Table back when Art was in high scho...

If the IAU hopes to redefine "constellation" to stand for "a region of the sky, bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination", or "planet" to involve clearing of regions and hydrodynamic equilibrium, then these efforts come into conflict with my romantic notions...

Chris and bystander, please accept my apology. It was meant as a joke. Or, more accurately, a sarcastic jab, which may be undeserved. The following notes attempt to explain my remark. - - - - - - - - - - If the IAU intends that part of their mission is not just to improve communication among astrono...

I'm trying to think of a humorous phrasing for the abbreviation IAU which matches the notion of "evil industrial bulldozers of the romantic and historical terms of astronomy". Let's see. The IAU: The Insensitive Astronomical Undoers. Probably someone has done this better.

I had a revelation last night that may actually be valid. Could it be that the reason humans can better discern dark things on light backgrounds than the reverse (assuming that this is in fact the case) is that it was an evolutionary advantage to be able to do so? The daytime lives of our hominid a...

Beautiful capture! I also enjoyed the "Lofoten" link that gives a drone-captured view of the area that makes me feel almost like I visited the place (but also makes me want to really visit). That large rock (I wonder what it is called) looks almost like a much smaller rock, covered in moss...

Thank you Johnnydeep. When I came to this discussion thread I said "I know someone smart will show me the moons. And you did. I tried the same inverting the image colors as you did and now I can find the moons. Great tip, thanks. Just one more comment: this makes me wonder why humans seem to b...

Interesting discussion. I am still an out-of-touch idealist. I prefer to imagine moving forward in the spirit of cooperation that ISS represented and that we would include everyone we can in the Moon efforts. I would love to hear that Russia supplied some really essential part of the technology and ...