Starship Asterisk*

If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.

... Why is the Big Bang so called, as it is said that noise cannot be heard in Space so surely the bang would not also! Perhaps it should be called the 'Big but silent Bang'! :wink: The mid-20th century British polymath Fred Hoyle helped discover that chemical elements could be synthesized in stars...

I found this article by Camille Carlisle on SkyandTelescope.com very helpful in understanding this report. Carlisle points out that, in addition to supporting and constraining inflation, these data are also concrete evidence of quantum gravity, gravity waves, and Hawking radiation -- very important ...

I looked up Gravitational Waves....but they lost me at the math section. And had been thinking about them for years now, and thinking about Gravity since September of 2007. It took me 9 months to get my head around..."Mass does not attract Mass". Personally, I have a problem with Gravity ...

ta152h0 wrote:When New Horizons arrive at Pluto, they may reconsider classifying it as a planet. One can only wish and hope

Pluto is a planet. Pluto -- along with Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris -- is a dwarf planet.

From an astrological perspective, Harrison Schmitt, as a Cancer born July 3rd, 1935, is the only human so far to set foot on his ruling planet - the Moon. First, the Moon is not a planet. The same word can have more than one meaning. The original meaning of "planet", "wanderer" ...

Who needs LSD when we have PhotoShop?

Gorgeous image. Makes me wish I could go there to see it first hand out of the window of a starship. Since this galaxy does not possess obvious bars, does that mean it probably does not have a "super-massive black hole" at its center? I imagine that if you were in the vicinity of M63, say...

That was really cool!! I have only taken an interest in astronomy for little over 2 years now and the sun is just one of those things that has never really seemed inspiring or interesting to me. It just seems so timeless yet you look at videos like that and it makes you see how active the sun is an...

MOND is not "self-published ... clearly insane crack-pottery." To be clear, I did not make that assertion. I started out conceding that I haven't read the paper ... that's my way of pointing out that I have no specific opinion about the work involved. 8-) -s I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. I ...

MOND is not "self-published ... clearly insane crack-pottery." And yes, empirical validation is necessary to confirm a theory. But at some point if all you're getting is null results, maybe it's time to reconsider your hypothesis, rather than adding another epicycle that might preserve the...

These gamma ray results are interesting and need further study. I would imagine that weakly interacting massive particles are only one possible explanation for the extra gamma rays. Weakly interacting massive particles are the currently favored mechanism to explain the excess gravity seen at galacti...

... . I read someplace that the Milky Way is supposedly 12 billion years old (and the WMAP satellite finally pegged the Universe at 13.7 billion) which makes us a surprisingly old galaxy. More recent data from the Planck satellite suggest an age of 13.82 billion years. But hey, what's a hundred mil...

...Back to the light point question considering your responses, for collimating my reflector, do you think one light source better than another? (Not that I would likely choose Venus but it is a nice bright object) You should collimate a telescope at the highest magnification atmospheric conditions...

... In one documentary, it was stated that, in our galaxy, red dwarfs outnumber main sequence stars by 3 to 1, ... . This statement doesn't make sense to me. Red dwarves are main sequence stars, happily fusing hydrogen into helium for tens of billions of years. I.e., they're going to be on the main...

...Back to the light point question considering your responses, for collimating my reflector, do you think one light source better than another? (Not that I would likely choose Venus but it is a nice bright object) You should collimate a telescope at the highest magnification atmospheric conditions...

Beautiful shot!!! It is nice for me to see something relatively close to where I live. (Pennsylvania). I always feel like the horrible cloud cover blocks most decent shots here in Pa. It seems like I need to move out west (which im going to do when I retire :)) or live on the other side of the plan...

Help I'm confused ! APOD: 2010 March 30 - Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313 in Reticulum. APOD 2014 March 06 - reflection nebula NGC 1313 towards Perseus ??? APOD 2014 March 06 - reflection nebula NGC 13 3 3 towards Perseus This is the real reason we give faint fuzzies evocative names based on what...

Okay, but which came first, the Running Chicken nebula, or the Eroding Gas Globules (EGG's)?

But there should be a prominent disclaimer: if the Earth were at this distance from the Sun, it would no longer be in the Sun's habitable zone, and would no longer have oceans or clouds. Nonsense. It's in exactly the middle of the habitable zone for plasma fish. Oh yes, of course. I read about them...

The inset photo of the earth should have been delineated more prominently. Less knowledgeable viewers or those who fail to read the caption might incorrectly assume this is an actual photo of the Sun and Earth rather than a composite. Personally, I have very little sympathy for people who misunders...

According to at least some definitions of the circumstellar habitable zone , Venus, Earth, Mars, and Ceres all reside in the Sun's habitable zone. So while the recently confirmed Kepler findings are interesting and encouraging, I don't think we're quite ready to send the Welcome Wagon to our new ne...

According to at least some definitions of the circumstellar habitable zone , Venus, Earth, Mars, and Ceres all reside in the Sun's habitable zone. So while the recently confirmed Kepler findings are interesting and encouraging, I don't think we're quite ready to send the Welcome Wagon to our new nei...

... Science simply states what it currently knows to be true, and will clarify that in as much detail as we wish to take in. But it won't go beyond that; speculation is not part of science and if science is to maintain its credibility, it must maintain that sense of propriety. ... But an essential ...

This picture made me smile! :D It's a reminder to me that you don't need perfectly clear weather, or a very dark sky, to enjoy skywatching. I'm fascinated by the Moon through clouds. Everything looks different from one moment to the next: the Moon's appearance, the thinner clouds shining and the thi...