Starship Asterisk*

And the relevance to the line on Jupiter is ...?

Extremely unlikely, I think. The path doesn't seem reasonable for that. Really, it just looks like an alignment of features that triggers our pattern recognition system. Happens a lot with star fields. Why so unlikely Chris? As you know Jupiter is famous for attracting and deflecting the orbits of ...

I find this expectation to be amazing, and wonderful for prospects of estimating the numbers of even small rogue planets: We show that Roman will be sensitive to FFP lenses that have masses from that of Mars (0.1 M ⊕) to gas giants (M gsim 100 M ⊕) as isolated lensing events with timescales from a f...

bystander wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:53 pm viewtopic.php?t=35659

Ah, so this is a new name for WFIRST. I've been reading about astronomers expectations from WFIRST for many years now.

Another possibility just came to mind: Could this have been caused by a string of debris from a broken up comet, similar to Shoemaker-Levy 9, only much smaller? Bruce Extremely unlikely, I think. The path doesn't seem reasonable for that. Really, it just looks like an alignment of features that tri...

Here's the abstract of a paper just out in The Astronomical Journal about a new space telescope designed to search for exoplanets and rogues by the gravitational lens method: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will perform a Galactic Exoplanet Survey (RGES) to discover bound exoplanets wi...

Another possibility just came to mind: Could this have been caused by a string of debris from a broken up comet, similar to Shoemaker-Levy 9, only much smaller?

Bruce

About fakes: (sigh). This is the fourth, independent observation I know about: http://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/kk20/j200820p1.jpg http://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/kk20/j200820p1.jpg Again, sorry to have raised that possibility, but in this day and age ... But personally, if one opinion is worth anything, you ...

Thanks for the in depth explanation of the blue spots Ann and Art. But, more to the point of this thread, Hypotheses: 1. a random alignment of features, aka a mere pareidolia. Could be proved by feature tracking, but I have no data for the last seven days. It’s been raining in the Carpathian Basin. ...

That is remarkable! The mystery line also happens to pass through a large blue patch in the transitional zone between the light equatorial cloud band and the dark cloud band above it. Is it common to see such large blue areas on Jupiter? The large blue patch is called a festoon. They are seen quite...

That is remarkable! The mystery line also happens to pass through a large blue patch in the transitional zone between the light equatorial cloud band and the dark cloud band above it. Is it common to see such large blue areas on Jupiter?

The above post was great johnnydeep, except for, GASP,

Also, who are Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell?

Look at the third line below each and every day's APOD explanation.

The whole subject of sub stellar mass objects is extremely interesting to me. Heck, it's ALL interesting: the range of planet-like objects, the range of star-like objects, and stellar evolution. Hmm - you never hear much about planetary evolution. Why not? I guess because we only have 8 or so examp...

Here's a CNN report on western wildfires. Wildfires are blazing new records as they burn in 15 Western states CNN Published Fri Aug 21, 2020 12:42 PM MDT Major wildfires are burning in California and other Western states. More than 20 major fires are burning in the Golden State, fueled by high tempe...

Consensus speaks. The "whys?" have it.

Like the Ringworld it would be unstable, methinks. What was Dyson thinking! It would never work. :lol2: Dyson was thinking it would be unstable. His vision was of large orbiting solar panels. But there was no controlling what sci-fi authors did with the concept. I was joking of course, which I ofte...

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 10:42 am Why?

I agree, but will hazard some guesses.

Because they could?

To make the straight parts crooked and the crooked parts straight?

Because flattening curves is the in thing now?

Arcturus. Hardly report worthy, right? It's the brightest star in the northern night sky after all. But tonight it was the only visible star, period. But it was much dimmer than normal and reddish, like Mars. Bright Jupiter was visible but nearby Saturn was just barely so. The cause was forest fires...

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/images/loop_of_the_day/goes-16/20200820000000/video/20200819000000_smokycyclones.GIF Here comes the smoke from California wildfires. The first few months we lived in eastern Idaho (in the fall of 2017) we didn't even realize that on clear days you can ...

Iridium in the CT boundary layer was key to cinching the case for an impact doing in the dinosaurs. Here's what could do so for this theory: The team said the key to proving that a supernova occurred would be to find the radioactive isotopes plutonium-244 and samarium-146 in the rocks and fossils de...

Not much mystery here. Near perfect vacuum can't cause much drag.

This confirms suspicions that the electromagnetic force also plays a role in star (and therefore planet) formation. Gravity isn't the complete driver in this story.

Wait, haven't there been cases (or at least one) where objects have skipped off the Earth's atmosphere? That would have way closer than this event.

And, since the topic of today's APOD is the Sun's rotation ; Gyrochronology is a method for estimating the age of a low-mass star like the Sun from its rotation period. The term is derived from the Greek words gyros, chronos and logos, roughly translated as rotation, age, and study respectively. It ...

And to think, that the Sun is just an average star. Stars like Antares and Betelgeuse are hundreds of time bigger. (Yet I think they are cooler. Does Betelgeuse use up more or less energy per second than the Sun? I haven't read any info on that.) Then you have stars like VY Canis Majoris that are t...