Starship Asterisk*

I’m just not sure how specific stars in this video, a very small percentage of those visible, cyclically pulse in intensity many times each. I don’t see anything unique about them in terms of apparent size/intensity etc. that might help produce this effect from interpolation or other video technique...

There's a new movie of the approach/recede from Ultima Thule that has what look like a number of variable stars in the background (I counted 18 so far): http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/images/main-page/fullmovie-mainpage2.mp4 Another link with more information, noting there are synthesized frames in there a...

Awesome, closest thing to being there. Just enjoy it.

Hey Rob, I suppose you could take adjacent pixels that lie outside the detected star/cross occultation pattern and blur/average/interpolate them into the locations of the offending stars. Then it might just appear as slight smudges when inside the galaxy of interest, and black when outside. If neede...

As nice as that picture is, it would be interesting to see a view from outside our galaxy by "removing" foreground stars. Maybe software could be written to identify them (sharp points of light) then mask them off.

Check out the perfect "H" of stars at the top of the Milky Way arch. You have to get the full resolution image to see it. Maybe it's the photographer's watermark?

Just watched the above NASA video and noticed the scientist saying there are no other known asteroids shaped like this in the Solar System. Given that there's been over 100,000 asteroids observed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid#Computerized_methods) and assuming many have had their shapes es...

Alex675 wrote:There is a strange-shaped backgound galaxy, top right of the image.

This is known as the Tie Fighter galaxy

I had no idea that the apparent view of the moon rotated around 90 degrees over the seasons. This is way more than subtle and maybe why people sometimes have a hard time to recognize Mikey Mouse on the Moon.

Probably all those gravitational vacuum cleaners have swept up most of the interstellar grit.

It might be interesting to directly see what the rest of the universe is made of by landing on one. Might be a real mess if it turned out to be antimatter...

It's seems hard to believe interstellar asteroids are this rare. Maybe there are waves of them that come in from old exploded stars.

How can such a little pinprick of light contain so much life?

Swiss cheese mars slightly more updated image. Original 2001 post https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010327.html and 2007 interesting image http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_004977_0930

Talk about vertigo!

Rob, That tree is an imager artifact. I was fooled by it a while back in similar images.

Wonderful but strangely sad ending to these two explorers

I think it's space lightning

Something I hadnt realized was that many early galaxies appear to get ripped apart and dissipate

I like the "glass dome" architecture, 360 view and weather resistant

That makes for a rough hike. Great imagery.

I hope I get to experience in my lifetime an immersive video of not only the sights, but sounds of a rover and whatever the slightest whisper of atmosphere there may be. Wouldn't that just be amazing? Who cares if it takes four months of uploads.

I'll have three fingers of heavy nuclei

It would be neat to model the wire shape, although I think catenaries are suspended by more than one point. Probably similar to a windmill.

There's probably a solution for this whole concept if you work on it long enough, just work smarter!

Maybe that's the trick, looking at that meteorite curve drop off at very small sizes, extremely small vehicles with hair width wires might work. Wires also double as a highly focused high gain antenna to earth.

Wonder how much power could be generated onboard given that current flow.

First search found this interesting micrometeorite probability http://www.propagation.gatech.edu/ECE6390/project/Fall2011/group5/website/ssp/sat/env/meteorite.html If you look at the second image (plot) and assume any micrometeorite on the chart can cut a wire, given it's huge average speed, it migh...

Neat idea. Someone should figure out the probability of a cut wire, if significant what you'd do to counter the loss of weight.