Starship Asterisk*

guest23453456 wrote:Anyone know why there seems to be a cycle where something makes the clouds more pronounced then lets them fade before making them pronounced again? Looks like a line going across the frame...

It's the day/night transition.

Also, around the equal sign on Dione at about the 10 o'clock position is what looks like a few faint lines of text, like a watermark on a photo. But there is something that is actually on Dione that could get the conspiracy theorists excited. I don't know if I should mention it... Well here goes! To...

I don't think that dust falling onto Dione could hide any of the craters except the smallest. And if dust had fallen heavily enough to hide them on one side, an area that got less dust would show evidence of hidden craters underneath, like a chair shows up as a smooth bump after a very heavy snowfall.

I have no idea why the trailing side has been hit more often, nor do I know why there is an equal sign on Dione at about the 10 o'clock position.

Ann,

Not all dust scatters light the same way. On Mars (and sometimes on Earth), the sun looks blue through dust.

florid_snow, I read the abstract in the link, and do not agree, though I think the standard explanation for the formation of mammatus clouds may not be complete either. To me, it's clear that mammatus clouds are not formed just from the heating of the underside of anvil clouds. If that were the case...

The video reminds me of a bunch of ants carrying a bug away. A bit sad.

Wouldn't the rotation of the Milky Way galaxy cause most large gas clouds that condense to rotate in the same direction, similar to how the Coriolis effect causes low pressure areas, such as hurricanes, to rotate in the same direction in the northern hemisphere?

Let me guess what you are thinking. The ejecta is expelled rather slowly and steadily. The heliomagnetosphere of the smaller star attracts and/or drags the expelled material causing it to spiral. As this ejecta passes the companion star in its outward migration it maintains a spiralling trajectory....

Do we know why the spiral shape (whether in visible or invisible light) seems to be so rare? Might a spiral be caused by emissions from just one area of a spinning star? Like water from a hose being swung around like a lasso? Given the size of the nebula and speed of the stars 'solar' wind, the rot...

Is that moonglint on the Atlantic and Lakes Erie and Ontario? I've often seen sunglint in satellite photos of various bodies of water, but this would be the first time I've seen moonglint. Also, It would be cool if someone made a 3D picture of an aurora using two photos taken at different angles. It...

Sure, if the star has a concentrated mass on one direction, it will experience a gravitational force. But gravity is a weak force, and the mass is very widely distributed. So like I said, I think the dynamical effects are insignificant. I don't mean, looking at it by eye, that it would LOOK signifi...

And another question... The stars that plough through all the gas and dust - are they slowed down by it, or not? I know the light and charged particles keep the gas and dust from actually hitting the star. May the star even be speeded-up as the gas and dust is concentrated in front of the star in a...

I've sometimes wondered about the gas molecules or atoms and why they collide so much - are they really so much closer to each other compared to their size than stars? Is there an electro-magnetic force that extends past the electrons that causes more collisions than might be expected? And another q...

"Art" is hard to define. As a photographer, I have wondered what makes a photo a piece of art. I don't think it should be defined as "anything that evokes an emotional response" or "makes a statement". Is a mirror on the wall art? A rock hung from the ceiling? It could ...

Good panorama and tribute to Neil Armstrong.

I see no reflection of a face, and I looked twice. I do see some squares above the horizon that could be partially cloaked borg cubes.

I was hoping to see a tribute to Neil Armstrong today, or at least tomorrow.
R.I.P., Mr. Armstrong.

@rootCauseBob The hissing noise was probably due to lightning-produced extremely low frequency radio waves interacting with power lines to produce an audible sound. The reason it seemed to move in "a horizontal path at a very high speed" could have been due to the sound delay from the powe...

Actually, upon looking again, the photos in my post above seem to be a good example of the upward moving leaders that start from the towers (shown in the optional play video above). Still, it is interesting that the vertical part of the bolts usually didn't have any branches.

I took some lightning photos this last Saturday July 21, 2012. After sunset, a thunderstorm that was earlier severe went on to produce some awesome lightning! My lightning photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmerritt/ The lightning seemed to hit the same structure at least 5 times! When two clou...