Starship Asterisk*

There is, in the upper right part of the Webb image, something that looks like a globular cluster and which is completely invisible in the Hubble image. Impressive. Alex Interesting… not even the enlarged Hubble image is sharp or detailed enough for me to notice any individual clusters, especially ...

SpaceCadet wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 8:38 am How far out do the petals of the corona extend? They seem huge.

Given that the sun is about 1.4 million Kilometer (865 m Mi) in diameter, they appear to be at least 1.5 mK long, depending on what is considered the edge of the ‘petals’.

So we have the Spaghetti Nebula, surrounding a neutron star that in its interior has a spaghetti phase of exotic matter, along other edible phases like gnocchi, lasagna and Swiss cheese. Tasty environment!

This gorgeous nebula always make me think of Godzilla’s Rodan, rather than a seagull.

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:44 pm
(And of course, as the Color Commentator I wonder why the shock front of HFG1 is blue in almost all pictures of this nebula. I guess that the blue color could possibly be OIII, mapped as blue.)

It does say so on the page behind the ‘bluish’ link in the text

For a numbskull person like me, those instructions were not too clear. Ann Indeed, I was looking for the T Tauri star, thinking it was the bright one at top center. But that didn’t seem to make much sense. Had to look very closely at the full image to find the actual T Tauri. Thanks for your clarif...

Today’s APOD really makes me think of the wonderful artwork of the late Don Lawrence, creator of the Storm comics

There are maybe 10 stars within 10 lightyears from Earth. Imagine it being 50,000! The night sky would never be black, but instead have a ‘milky’ glow, perhaps even perpetual daylight, and be absolutely covered with stars that could shine as bright as a full moon. But (inter)stellar radiation might...

There are maybe 10 stars within 10 lightyears from Earth. Imagine it being 50,000! The night sky would never be black, but instead have a ‘milky’ glow, perhaps even perpetual daylight, and be absolutely covered with stars that could shine as bright as a full moon. But (inter)stellar radiation might ...

Rauf wrote: ↑Thu May 11, 2023 6:36 am I clicked on Discuss on today's APOD, May 11, and got redirected to the Discuss page of May 6. I think there has been a mistake while adding this page's link..

Yeah, got the same. Had to browse the forum to find this page. Today’s photo is also labeled May 6.

Can’t wait to see what details JWST will show us if it ever gets pointed to this wonderful nebula…

Would brushes to sweep the stuff away be so much extra load? Good to get twice the design life, but what if the sand had come and terminated the mission after a month? Never understood that myself. Adding a rudimentary brush system might extend the designed lifespan, maybe even double it. But I’m n...

Ann wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 4:40 am This comparison between the Hubble and the Webb portraits of the Pillars is fantastic!

Does anyone know why many of the orange/yellow stars in the Webb image don’t show up in the Hubble image? Seems that only the blue ones are visible in the Hubble image

MadCat-75 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:06 am Looks like the Mutara Nebula from Star Trek II xD

I sure hope the Reliant isn’t lurking inside!

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:20 am
Wouldn't it be fun to see the "topmost pillar" spinning like a top because of the star with twin jets embedded inside it?

Ann

A kind of interstellar lighthouse perhaps

That the Great Red Spot is hotter than anything else on Jupiter might be expected - it's a welling up from deeper layers. But why are the Poles hotter? John I’m just guessing, but maybe Jupiter’s much stronger magnetic fields create more friction between particles near the poles, and thus more heat?

WHy is the Moon so cratered and the Earth isn't? Several reasons: First, the Earth has an atmosphere that helps burn up most of the smaller meteors (shooting stars). Second, the Earth is geologically active. Continents move and shift, volcanoes form new land and cover existing land with lava. Third...

In the June 23, 2022 APOD of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744, there is a blue dot along the ~11:00 line moving away from the galaxy. Quite a few of the stars have a light blue color, but this star(?) has a distinctly different color (a darker blue) from all the others. What is it? and what gives it this...

In the June 23, 2022 APOD of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744, there is a blue dot along the ~11:00 line moving away from the galaxy. Quite a few of the stars have a light blue color, but this star(?) has a distinctly different color (a darker blue) from all the others. What is it? and what gives it this...

Made it to a 1000 easily after a few times, with scores up to a couple of million. But they don’t get saved. Put a brown dwarf really close to the star and create a binairy pair. Ghe add a few extra on the outer edge and speed it up to max.

4 dead cats in a row. I sure hope the universe isn’t trying to tell me something…

I really don’t see the distinction between the 4 phenomena either, aside from the 22 and 46 degree rings. The explanation seems to be pointing at different parts of the same circles and giving them different names. Also the streaks on the right of the 22 degree circle might just be thin clouds.

There seems to be another sattelite visible on the upper right

Anyone know what the bright flashes scattered throughout the video are? Lightning or small meteor strikes? I’d guess lightning, but some appear to leave small black spots…

Great image! I always check out the links in the description, but sadly one of them (2nd Stephan’s Quintet) leads to a paywall at Nature.com