Search found 93 matches

by ems57fcva
Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:22 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: GW151226: A Second Confirmed Source ... (2016 Jun 15)
Replies: 51
Views: 11180

Re: APOD: GW151226: A Second Confirmed Source ... (2016 Jun 15)

Ok. Presumably the chirp wave at the end marks the moment when the two black holes became one? Does there exist a theory / model explaining the general shape of this chirp? It would be nice to say that "this is what GR predicted the fusion of two black holes to sound like (on the GW spectrum) ...
by ems57fcva
Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:52 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: NGC 6872: A Stretched Spiral Galaxy (2016 Apr 26)
Replies: 35
Views: 5090

Re: APOD: NGC 6872: A Stretched Spiral Galaxy (2016 Apr 26)

The interesting part of this picture for me is the bridge of blue star starting at IC 4970 and initially running downwards and to the left before curving around NGC 6872. I take this (and the disruption of NGC 6872's spiral arms) to indicate that IC 4970 has already made its closest pass to NGC 6872...
by ems57fcva
Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:30 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: A Picturesque Equinox Sunset (2016 Mar 20)
Replies: 46
Views: 25658

Re: APOD: A Picturesque Equinox Sunset (2016 Mar 20)

I'll bite on this one. I notice that the picture taker's company is located in Laurel, MD. And living in the DC area, it seems that the trees look right for being in the area. However, our area generally is not laid out in a grid except in the cities. But that is not a city scene. In any case, a loo...
by ems57fcva
Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:35 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Julius Caesar and Leap Days (2016 Feb 29)
Replies: 48
Views: 4957

Re: APOD: Julius Caesar and Leap Days (2016 Feb 29)

This APOD is slightly mistaken. The tropical year (364.24219 days) is not the time it takes the Earth to go around the Sun, but instead the time it takes the Earth to go from on vernal equinox to the next. The sidereal year is how long the Earth takes to go around the Sun, and its length is 365.2563...
by ems57fcva
Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:14 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Gamma-ray Rain from 3C 279 (2015 Jul 22)
Replies: 28
Views: 8932

Re: APOD: Gamma-ray Rain from 3C 279 (2015 Jul 22)

There is a problem here: The video is for New Horizons and not Fermi's gamma ray "rain".

I did find the Fermi video under the first link in the text. It is very interesting and worthy of being on APOD. I have the you get this APOD corrected quickly.
by ems57fcva
Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:19 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Mysterious Changing feature on Titan (2014 Oct 15)
Replies: 33
Views: 27161

Re: APOD: Mysterious Changing feature on Titan (2014 Oct 15)

I think I will have what probably is the last word: The differences between pictures 1 and 3 can probably be chalked up to changing water levels and currents. However, the transient in picture 2 is another matter. Hopefully we will learn more about that over time. In the meantime, it is neat to see ...
by ems57fcva
Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:36 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Mysterious Changing feature on Titan (2014 Oct 15)
Replies: 33
Views: 27161

Re: APOD: Mysterious Changing feature on Titan (2014 Oct 15)

Look carefully at the overall image. There appears to be a line of demarcation in first two images running from the center of the top of teh frame towards the bottom near the lower left corner. There is more "stuff" to the right of that line than to the left. In the last picture, the line ...
by ems57fcva
Sun Mar 30, 2014 4:00 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: A Milky Way Dawn (2014 Mar 29)
Replies: 43
Views: 4798

Re: APOD: A Milky Way Dawn (2014 Mar 29)

There is something about the contrast in this image that reveals something interesting: There appear to be two dust lanes in this image. What appears to be the foreground dust land starts on the upper right side of the Milky Way. As it come to the central bulge area, it heads downward and around th...
by ems57fcva
Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:24 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: A Milky Way Dawn (2014 Mar 29)
Replies: 43
Views: 4798

Re: APOD: A Milky Way Dawn (2014 Mar 29)

There is something about the contrast in this image that reveals something interesting: There appear to be two dust lanes in this image. What appears to be the foreground dust land starts on the upper right side of the Milky Way. As it come to the central bulge area, it heads downward and around the...
by ems57fcva
Sun Jan 19, 2014 10:57 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Spiral Galaxies in Collision (2014 Jan 19)
Replies: 29
Views: 6168

Re: APOD: Spiral Galaxies in Collision (2014 Jan 19)

Awesome detail...very clear picture... Two throwing stars colliding... If two galaxies collide, and no one takes a picture..... :?: One observation...to me, it appears where the collision takes place, 2207's arms are pushed up and away from IC2163...some stars from 2207 trail through and behind IC2...
by ems57fcva
Fri Nov 15, 2013 5:57 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)
Replies: 49
Views: 8411

Re: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)

Dude, it's just a galaxy. Accretion discs are too small to ever image directly. Go ahead and search for pictures. You won't find anything but concept art. Then what would you say that the ring is around the center is? Also, I will direct you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disc which has ...
by ems57fcva
Fri Nov 15, 2013 4:54 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)
Replies: 49
Views: 8411

Re: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)

It looks to me like a lot of gas and dust are being pulled into the center of the galaxy. Indeed there is a ring around the central object that may well be an accretion disk. Nope. There is no mechanism to pull anything into the center. And an accretion disc around a central massive black hole woul...
by ems57fcva
Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:27 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)
Replies: 49
Views: 8411

Re: APOD: The Jets of NGC 1097 (2013 Nov 14)

It looks to me like a lot of gas and dust are being pulled into the center of the galaxy. Indeed there is a ring around the central object that may well be an accretion disk. This movement of mass from the outer reaches of the bar towards the center may well be behind the phenomenon of jets 1 and 3....
by ems57fcva
Fri Nov 09, 2012 5:19 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail (2012 Nov 08)
Replies: 39
Views: 12209

Re: APOD: Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail (2012 Nov 08)

As best I can tell, the small galaxy at the bottom of the photo IS the intruder galaxy. There is a bridge running between the cores of the two galaxies! It comes out of the central code at 6:00, sweeps up past the 2:00 position (where what I think is a tidal tail is being mistaken for the intruder)...
by ems57fcva
Thu Nov 08, 2012 7:36 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail (2012 Nov 08)
Replies: 39
Views: 12209

Re: APOD: Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail (2012 Nov 08)

As best I can tell, the small galaxy at the bottom of the photo IS the intruder galaxy. There is a bridge running between the cores of the two galaxies! It comes out of the central code at 6:00, sweeps up past the 2:00 position (where what I think is a tidal tail is being mistaken for the intruder),...
by ems57fcva
Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:31 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Merging NGC 2623 (2012 Oct 19)
Replies: 17
Views: 6989

Re: APOD: Merging NGC 2623 (2012 Oct 19)

I have my own views if how galaxies merge, and so I have a different interpretation on this altogether. I do agree this this is a galaxy merger, and that the two original galaxies are stretched out in this image, with their cores merging in the center. However, when I see pictures of galaxies mergin...
by ems57fcva
Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:35 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: DNA: The Molecule that Defines You (2012 Aug 21)
Replies: 68
Views: 9789

Re: APOD: DNA: The Molecule that Defines You (2012 Aug 21)

zorts wrote:This is, indeed, a cool video clip - but I like it better when APOD sticks to straightahead astronomy.
I will second that.
by ems57fcva
Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:17 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: DNA: The Molecule that Defines You (2012 Aug 21)
Replies: 68
Views: 9789

Re: APOD: DNA: The Molecule that Defines You (2012 Aug 21)

Chris Peterson, your reply to Vincent Pinto is not really an answer to what he said. What studies show that evolutionary processes make this kind of structure essentially inevitable? How could you have evolution without replicating DNA? If, somehow, you had a DNA molecule appear in a living cell, i...
by ems57fcva
Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:00 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Simulation: A Disk Galaxy Forms (2012 Jul 17)
Replies: 37
Views: 8757

Re: APOD: Simulation: A Disk Galaxy Forms (2012 Jul 17)

I'm not very impressed by this simulation. No central bulge (and at least an insignificant one), no dust lanes, and no bridges between the centers of the galaxies after a close encounter. So I see there as being a long ways to go here.
by ems57fcva
Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:24 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Shocked by Supernova 1987A (2012 Feb 27)
Replies: 30
Views: 6699

Re: APOD: Shocked by Supernova 1987A (2012 Feb 27)

The growing nebula in the center reminds me more of the Eta Carinae nebula than anyting else. Maybe this two-lobed structure will evolve into a more "normal" looking supernova remnant, but I still find the similarity to be striking.
by ems57fcva
Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:26 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)
Replies: 19
Views: 5465

Re: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)

Chris Peterson wrote: fusion isn't what powers a star in any case; the energy source is gravity That I will politely take issue with. While the release of gravitational potential energy can act as an energy source, what powers the stars very much is nuclear fusion, with E=mc 2 showing up as the diff...
by ems57fcva
Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:02 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)
Replies: 19
Views: 5465

Re: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)

[T]he Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. I find this to be a very odd statement, since it takes added energy coming from the stellar core for the outer layers to be expelled in the first place. If the core is out nu...
by ems57fcva
Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:15 pm
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)
Replies: 19
Views: 5465

Re: APOD: M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (2011 Dec 27)

[T]he Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. I find this to be a very odd statement, since it takes added energy coming from the stellar core for the outer layers to be expelled in the first place. If the core is out nu...
by ems57fcva
Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:05 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Comet and CME on the Sun (2011 Oct 05)
Replies: 40
Views: 7913

Re: APOD: Comet and CME on the Sun (2011 Oct 05)

I think that the case against the two being related becomes much stronger when you can see the initiating region. Maybe this is coincidence, but with the occultation disk in place, what you see is comet heading and CME going out on the comet's trajectory. That makes asking if the two are related mak...
by ems57fcva
Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:57 am
Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
Topic: APOD: Comet and CME on the Sun (2011 Oct 05)
Replies: 40
Views: 7913

Re: APOD: Comet and CME on the Sun (2011 Oct 05)

Here is a full screen version of that frame. Once again, notice the anomalous flare at 280 degrees. I'm sure that this is the start of the CME coincident with the comet's death.