Starship Asterisk*

“Explosion-like” only if there is something to make it explosive, impact is just that, an impact. There's nothing wrong with calling it an explosion- that's what a high speed impact produces. An explosion is just a rapid release of energy; it doesn't matter if the cause is chemical, nuclear, or kin...

sniezynka wrote:Anyone have more photos of this event?

http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_01sep07.htm
http://www.cloudbait.com/science/aurigid2007.html

Bodies of water are not necessary for a triple rainbow. I have observed the phenomenom in the desert of Arizona on Hwy 89 between Tuba City and Paige. No, but each rainbow needs a light source behind the observer and in line with its center. Usually there's only one source, the Sun, so to have mult...

There's no reason that the workings of the Universe have to make sense to us on some intuitive level. One of the axioms of science is that if the axioms are not true we can't know anything. You may be correct, but if you are then the universe runs on magic and/or religion and there is no point in p...

Ok, let's say we had a big bang when time and matter came into existence. What was before that? The question is meaningless, because no time means no "before". Ok, so what caused the big bang? I don't think anybody is ready to give up cause and effect, because that would mean magic was in...

Can someone explain why the periferial stars are streaked away from the center ant the central stars are not streaked? Most likely this is caused by a combination of poor tracking (or no tracking) and field rotation. You get field rotation when you don't use a mount that rotates with the sky. It lo...

I once saw an amazing atmospheric display of sun halos while skiing at Alta one sunny day. I realize this phenomena has to do with ice crystals in the air lined up in a certain way, but the patterns looked similar in that there were reverse arcs among other bizarre rainbow patterns. Could there hav...

My point is that it is impossible for the visible lake in the left front to be the source, as it is not in line. Lets ask the photgrapher to turn around, so we can see the lake behind him. That's true. But the lake to the left of the camera is where the reflection is coming from (the Sun is behind ...

I think the second set of rainbows is caused by reflection off part of the lake behind the camera. This must be the case, as rainbows can only be observed when in-line with the light rays. As we can assume that the reflecting surface of the lake is horizontal, the only surfaces which can be candita...

The correct, anatomical name for your thumb is 'pollux'. But you call it a thumb. A surgeon would too, though they would use 'pollucis' (of the thumb) of the muscles that move the thumb. But thumb doesn't also carry a meaning that is otherwise contrary to modern medicine. If the term had been inven...

I think that scorpio is allowable since it IS a zodiacle constellation Of course, it's a matter of opinion whether Scorpio is an allowable synonym for Scorpius . But it shouldn't be based on the fact that the constellation is Zodiacal. Zodiacal just means that it is one of the twelve (really thirte...

I regularly have to correct people when they call me an astrologer instead of astronomer, and now APOD decides to call the constellation Scorpius by its astrological name, Scorpio . What were you thinking? (I know that Scorpio is sometimes considered synonymous with Scorpius , but it goes against as...

That, in a nutshell, is the problem of the 21st century. How do we know to "believe" in quarks but not in the secret military programs of small dictatorial regimes? In brief, how do we handle the verb "believe"? Like many other words, it has different meanings in different conte...

It will be different stars from Canada. Only a little bit: the difference is under 3°; the Moon stayed in Aquarius. Yes, but the pictures are oriented with respect to the horizon. So what's above the Moon in Canada is below it in Antarctica. The stars seen above the Moon are in completely different...

The south pole and kalamalka lake eclipse photos both show numerous other objects tracking through the sky. What are these objects? If they are other celestial objects, why do they seem to mirror the same arc of travel as the moon? (my own guess...as the world turns the objects in the distance appe...

Actually, I'm more interested in this sentence from today's APOD. "The Moon was up continuously for 14 days in August -- when viewed from the South Pole." Why isn't the moon continuously visible from the South Pole? The Sun isn't continuously visible because the axis of rotation of the Ea...

But the center is a point in spacetime, not a three dimensional point that we can observe. That is where the disconnect occurs. I took a science class once and they taught me that step #1 of the method was, "Observe a phenomenon." Precisely. We have observed the structure of the Universe,...

At least some cosmologists are also of the opinion the universe is expanding. That would imply to me that everywhere in the universe is receding from ??? the center of the universe ??? That's true. But the center is a point in spacetime, not a three dimensional point that we can observe. There is n...

It is possible that the Universe itself is smaller than the visible Universe, Say what? That didn't come out right. What was that supposed to say? It was supposed to say just what it did. The actual Universe can be smaller than the observable Universe. Sounds odd, but nothing in theory precludes it...

There's an error in the writeup for the 5 September 2007 image of the Aurigids. While the source of the debris that produced last weekend's shower was from the ~83 BCE passage of Comet Kiess (C/1911 N1), that wasn't the most recent passage of the comet through the inner Solar System. Its last passag...

What is the temperature of interstellar space? Is it determined by the proximity of the nearest star? The distance between stars is so vast that logically it would be indescribably cold, especially if there is no nearby surface to reflect light or heat. Just curious. Most likely, it is very hot. Th...

Here is one example of an observation that disproves a common notion. Many people speak of space "curving back on itself" somehow. If there were any such effect we would see every star in the universe in every direction we look. In other words, space would be uniformly white. We observe t...

Maybe someone can explain something to me. Everyone seems to think a red moon is expected during an eclipse, even old hat. But when I saw one in the early 50s it was quite unexpected and it took a while for someone to figure out why it looked red. The newspaper said nobody had seen that effect befo...

I guess I understand the 4D universe concept as well as anybody, which is to say zero equals zero. I am very suspicious of any concept not based on observation, and this one is by definition not observable. I guess it depends on what you mean by "observable". By your definition, perhaps y...

Cosmologists are of the opinion that there is no center and no edge to the universe and that the term "Big Bang" is misleading and confusing to lay people. It gives people an impression that the universe came into existence in an explosion, hence there should be a center of the explosion....