Starship Asterisk*

I'm no scientist but it looks like an aurora, possibly excited oxygen atoms? I read it up and they can give a green glow. As for other comments solar activity will be the obvious thing to look for particularly as we have a solar maximum just now. I doubt it's reflections from the sea as (low/visible...

An "outside looking in" sort of question here! Regarding M55 and how "busy" it seems from the APOD picture. Are we fortunate that our solar system is on the edge of our local galaxy? Does this give us an advantage in terms of seeing much of the known universe without the clutter ...

Ref. todays picture and comment regarding the effect of shining a laser at the galactic centre. Forgetting for the moment the distances and hence time frames involved and given that we, with our limited technology, are able to detect water molecules in distant atmospheres, is it not the case that no...