Starship Asterisk*

BMAONE23 wrote:Understanding that the Northern Lights are caused by Solar activity rather than Gods.

Well, I think we had already figured that out without space exploration!

ETC.
ETC.
ETC.

And then some.

Harry: the collision of 2, 3 or many galaxies create progressively larger bangs/quasars. Guess what occurs when most of the known galaxies in the local universe are collected together into the increasing gravity of a single black hole. Except that isn't going to happen. Except for very local areas ...

We see apparent size of stars in the beautiful Hubble photos. Are these because bright objects burn bigger areas on the image? Can the photos actually record a size of such distant things? The HST cannot resolve stars, possibly outside a handful of large, nearby ones. Its aperture (as with all tele...

That I completely disagree with. You like the word transform. I think the correct word is ALTER. I use the word "transform" because it accurately describes the typical process used in scientific image processing. No new data is created. You can take the transformed image and reverse what ...

That is exactly why quantum mechanics states there are a finite number of units between 1 and 3, in both time and space. The imagination can perceive an infinite amount of units, the science of quantum cannot. I can't speak to the limitations of your imagination, but I assure you that quantum mecha...

I'm fully aware of the definition of infinity, infinity is simply no limit. That isn't any definition of infinity I've ever encountered. What happens if any of these values are assigned infinity? Values can't be "assigned infinity"; infinity itself isn't a value. If the "Whole" ...

Hello I'm wondering if all the stars we see with the naked eye are within our Milky Way Galaxy. Just to clarify Case's answer, you are correct that all the individual stars you can see with the naked eye are in our own galaxy, and in fact, are in our local region of the Galaxy. Any more distant lig...

Then I would like you to explain to me the mechanics on how you can increase the limit on a limitless value - I can't see it. I don't know what to say, except that you need to review a first year calculus text. You don't seem to understand either limits, nor the mathematical meaning of infinity. Th...

Dr. Skeptic wrote:The universe cannot be infinite, (implying static) and expanding at the same time.

Infinite does not in any way imply static.

You can conceive infinity but it can't be measured, it can't be divided, it can't be added to, it can't be put on paper, it cannot be placed in a ratio, it cannot manipulated by integers in any way - its simply the intellectual concept "If there is no limit". Quantum mechanics has set lim...

Infinity implies no limit or a non-existent limit. Expanding implies an increase in the limit. How can a limit that does not exist increase? "No limit" comes close to making sense mathematically. But note that "no limit" is a condition, not a noun. "Expanding implies an inc...

Sorry, I do understand the non-limit of Infinity. Your response contradicts itself, if a non-limit of infinity is reached it cannot expand. Limitless cannot expand, that is exactly what I mean when stating the limit infinity x 2 does not change its value. You are trying to use language to describe ...

To say two celestial objects are 180 degrees apart, is only valid when the point of observation [or, reference point] is cited. Any two objects are always 180 apart, since they lie in a straight line. That's true. But what I said was "180° apart in the sky", which I think should be reason...

If the universe is infinite it cannot grow, infinity +1 still equals the same number. Do you see why infinity is a hard limit to grasp? Your use of ∞ is trying to state that 2∞≻∞, that is incorrect, a false statement. Sorry, but you don't understand infinity. It isn't a number . You can't apply mat...

I can understand [now] that there are 2 kinds of opposition. The problem, as I see it, is that folks only say "opposition" without specifying which they mean. No, there really aren't two kinds of opposition. It should always be obvious from the context whether you are discussing oppositio...

Gosh this is beginning to take on the appearance that space is all in the imagination of mathematicians. Calculations of wobbles and strobes that indicate something is there. It seems to take trick photography, artist renditions, and graphic designers to convince us. ... I am truly let down, crushe...

Infinity is a conceptual limit, it does not exist passed our imaginations. I disagree. As a language construct, it is generally vague and ill-defined. But mathematically, it is rigorous, and there is no reason to think that in its mathematical senses it doesn't act as a proxy for something that exi...

If the universe and/or time were infinite, it would allow the mathematical statement "1/infinity" to be real value. The result would be any possible event would have to have taken place because the probability of any event would be equivalent to infinity/infinity = 1 or 100%, even if/when...

I have agreed earlier that the coma light is sunlight. Very nice picture. Are you saying the bright light in the HST coming from the core is sunlight too? That bright? Yes. The core, or pseudonucleus, is part of the coma as well. It consists of the same dust, just in higher concentration because of...

Is it really far fetched to think a very large thing like Jupiter could influence the orbit of a 2.2 mile wide piece of rock like Holmes? Holmes is orbiting in a region of the Solar System where orbits are not very stable. It probably began as a long period comet that was perturbed into a short per...

However, lending it some credibility by virtue of your knowledge, in the reference it states that dust etc keeps us from seeing the light from the galactic center. Dust completely blocks out the light of billions of suns. More correctly, thousands of light years of dust is able to block out virtual...

Chris, the lens flare around the moon is white and red and large, but I doubt that the white flare is because this is a low quality lens. That isn't the kind of flare I'm talking about. I'm referring to internal reflections between elements that produce secondary images of bright sources. They are ...

Would you like to share an example of one of your flares with us that you think demonstrates this effect. And don't forget, the flare needs to point 'away' from the light source with its brightest point furthest from the moon. Getting the same kind of flare means using the same kind of lens. Why no...

Undoubtedly, that lens open as it is on F4 is flaring quite badly from the moonlight, you can see the huge flare halo and its numerous flare spikes radiating out from the moons light source. But they are all WHITE - as they should be for a white source. However, this single spike is green and almos...

It seems to me that these are dichotomous. A solar system (or a single galaxy by itself) represents the stable "end state" (if there really is such a thing) of a process of gravitational interactions among the constituents. A group of continually colliding galaxies cannot be considered a ...