Starship Asterisk*

..... the rate of expansion of the Universe is actually increasing- something that can only be explained classically by a force opposite that of gravity. We call that force "dark energy", although its actual nature remains very unclear. Kudos Chris, THIS is how to describe the speculation...

Eric wrote:Great pic. Has anyone been able to follow the link to the full-res image? I'm getting a "not found" when I try.
--Eric

For now, just add .jpg to the end of the address.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:For such a tenuous cloud of gas, this is a very dense subject!

HA! I'm feeling a little dense just thinking about Tenuousness.

Beyond wrote:

FloridaMike wrote:
Check out the Big Brain on Brad! ...er... Chris! ....

(best quote from THE best movie ever)

In this image, the Moon appears 230 arcminutes in diameter, more than seven times its actual size. I just figured it was taken during one of the "Super Moons" the media gets all worked up about..... :mrgreen: When the image was made, Spica and Venus were 216 arcminutes apart. Since they a...

geckzilla wrote:
Oh, the moon has been scaled up? I didn't realize it.

• DeSpicable

HA!

wait, wait, wait... I haven’t had a drink of the cool aid...

Isn’t "dark matter" just something we made up to explain something we don’t understand?

What does he moon have to do with aSTARonomy?

Great shot by the way. Thanks.

It looks more like cell division to me.

Have to get this printed on black velvet, off to Bing we go ....

whomever wrote:...sun a "world"?

Gee whiz, science and poetry CAN coexist.

OR, it's all just a simulation running on a fantastically complex machine you could loosely define as a computer where a simulation of someone like me is typing on a simulation of a computer.

genevb wrote:Won't see much discussion here until the links (yesterday, tomorrow, discussion) at the bottom of the APOD page for 2013-08-09 are corrected not to point to 2012. It's not hard to guess the URL, for the discussion page, but I had to enter it by hand.

that conversation was a blast from the past man!

.... call it fake because of the invisible stars. That part of the caption stood out to me as an attempt by the editor to head off such claims. It's a bit sad they have to jump through such hoops. I am often tempted to channel "Luther the anger translator" on behalf of the editors. :evil:...

The comments are typically amazing; I have to shake my head (still) in disbelief. I get it that we don’t know EVERYTHING, but come on, we know enough. Just pump some CO2 into a chamber exposed to sunlight. That should tell you something. To paraphrase Michael Crichton “Don’t worry dudes; we may dest...

This topic really brings out the tin foil hat crowd....

This has to be one of the most beautiful earth - sky compositions ever made. Thank you.

I take it to mean something that a person attributes to some sort of supernatural phenomenon. Many people do that, and in some cases doing so provides apparent benefits. ...<snip/>... I have absolutely no problem hypothesizing perfectly reasonable reasons why that might work. The fact that I can't ...

I am a Natural Philosopher through and through. As such I must note that while there are plenty of studies which fail to find the presence of "magic" there are no studies that suggest humans do not need "magic". In fact, our scientific studies involving humans are careful to wee...

I am a Natural Philosopher through and through. As such I must note that while there are plenty of studies which fail to find the presence of "magic" there are no studies that suggest humans do not need "magic". In fact, our scientific studies involving humans are careful to weed...

Wow, so much in that video. Solar observation, primary weather patterns, art and science all mushed up together. Love it. Thanks.

neufer wrote:You can do cross-eyed stereoscopy to observe the Earth & Moon in 3D.

Ah gees, my eyes were closed....

Also, I am Martian, so why didn’t you mention in the commentary that the image includes Martians?

Just smile and wave boys.... (and girls)

Nice Red White and Blue photo for the 4th. Thanks.