Starship Asterisk*

This is a fascinating discussion with so many things to consider ("consider" etymology, by the way, alludes to "looking toward the stars" con+sidere)! As long as we're talking about etymology, I find the term "terrain" in today's explanation to be oddly jarring. Russ

Are you sure it isn't the ISS ? The APOD image is from 1999, and the ISS was launched in 1998. So it could have been. Today's APOD, like those on most Sundays, is a repeat, having been used on at least five occasions. It first appeared on 30 Aug 1999, just a few days after the image was snapped, wi...

I apreciated the "falling leaf" story I, too, appreciate this O Henry classic short story. Kudos to the APOD editors for including a link to it. By the way, I’m convinced that there are many persons whose lives are saved, or at least the quality of their lives are significantly improved, ...

AVAO wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 10:37 am

neufer wrote: ↑Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:45 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Heaven is where everything is white!
Tribute to Neufer

I sure do miss Neufer. APOD hasn't been the same since Art left us. And now Orin's gone, too.

I make a case that the square values are different because of context. To extract the data out of its context, yes, there is a certain raw value that is identical. But to extract the data and proclaim "puzzle solved" is to abandon the context; in effect, this is abandoning data. Basically...

The text seems a little outdated. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_230813.jpg The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared recently recorded by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope Spitzer Space Telescope has retired, right? So it couldn't have possibly record data on this galaxy recently. This APOD is a r...

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...

Russ

Good Lord! I've heard about this. Cats juggling!

-Russell

Those fenders!
Does anybody remember watching the fender repair using duct tape carried out on the Apollo 17 mission?

APOD Robot wrote: But these speeds are less than the speed that all of these objects together move relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). If Neufer were here he would remind us that: Neufer wrote (APOD 15 Jun 2014): " C a MBR idge" is such a relic term: http://en.wi...

Several of you have asked about Neuffer. Sadly, I have this to share. It was posted by his son in the Shakespeare Google Group earlier this month on March 4: Hi all, I wanted to let you know that my dad Art Neuendorffer died peacefully this afternoon after his health quickly deteriorated last week. ...

My first thought upon seeing today's APOD was that this is one of Randall Munroe's XKCD comics, as he often uses flowcharts to humorous effect. Here's an example: https://xkcd.com/1688/

Wow! I learned today that a 'true' blue moon is not the commonly believed 'second full moon in a month,' but rather the 'third full moon of a season with four.' And, as in 1937, this can happen in a calendar year that has only the usual twelve one-a-month full moons, not thirteen. The Sky & Tele...

In my search of the APOD archive, I see that this Stereo Eros post has appeared four times. The first was in February 2000, 21 years ago—an oldie but goodie!

Who's watching whom?

Ahead! Warp factor 9 gazillion, Mr. Sulu!

The canyon is interesting, but I'm curious about the three brown "sores" on the image left. What are they and by what processes were they created?

I'm curious about the faintly visible bluish galaxy at the right edge of the image, just right of the blue foreground star. Does this galaxy have a name/designation? Are there any larger images of it?

Neufer, I wouldn't say those Galaxies are "meatier". Those Galaxy "Misses" are probably a little "Meatier" than you might have imagined: <<The Miss Galaxy Pageant is an annual event held in Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga that selects the "best"...

While hating to rain on Elon Musk's parade, I have to say that one thing this Falcon Heavy "demonstration launch" truly demonstrates is just how out of touch billionaires such as Musk are with the real world in which they live. Rather than sending his car into space, Musk could have sold ...

Would someone please correct the "there, their, they're" grammatical error in the next to last sentence in the description for this APOD.

I love the term "land landing."

I, too, don't mind the occasional, infrequent video. In this particular case, I don't see how a still picture could have conveyed to essence of this phenomenon. And for me, the most interesting aspect of today's entry is knowing that these images were not shown in time-lapse. I don't know what the p...