Starship Asterisk*

If the explosion is 40K years old, and the light from that explosion had to travel 3K light-years to earth, then wouldn't that mean that the light from the explosion reached earth 43K years ago. I'm confused. Maybe it's just the way the author worded it. The [Earth observed] supernova remnant has a...

Fred the Cat wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:51 pm
Ann, your Flying Spaghetti Monster reminded me of last night's Nature.

That show came to mind for me as well.

It made be think that any planet with life was bound to have predators & prey
and that eventually some those predators would have to become super intelligent.

Ann wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:31 am
Why do supernova remnants look so different?

• 1) Their type.
  2) Their age.
  3) Their environment.

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 12:19 pm
I thought bit looked 'Icky' 'til I saw Ann's meatball & spaghetti head!
I'll never eat meat balls ans spaghetti again!

Swedish meat balls are OK but I wouldn't eat An's spaghetti either.

GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant known galaxy yet identified in the observable universe, having a spectroscopic redshift of z=11.1 Universe age at 1+z = 12.1 was 414 Myr. GN-z11 size: 1.2 kpc (~ 0.303" at 1+z = 12.1) 1.6 μm HST resolution ~ 0.168" [ 1+z = 12.1 : gives a scale of 3.95...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Sigma_orionis_cluster.jpg/1280px-Sigma_orionis_cluster.jpg Sigma Orionis is a multiple star and the central star of an entire very young cluster containing several pre-main sequence stars. The hottest, brightest component of Sigma Orionis is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BbpaNXbxg I'm fine with APOD exploring different imaging and visualization techniques. I most appreciate APODs when they teach, which this one does not. I'm not sure that's true. Certainly, removing the stars changes how our innate pattern recognition system operat...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JypEu99RXgY The Webb Space Telescope has transormned into its final form. Now it is on its way to Lagrange point 2. JWST has already completed about 80% of the way. https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1479880178021060609?s=20 Just a quick reminder: the main goal of J...

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to Target Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Jun 25, 2018, Solar System and Beyond <<NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most ambitious and complex space observatory ever built, will use its unparalleled infrared capabilities to study Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, shedding ne...

Confusing why a constellation gets dropped? :shock: Originally, the constellations were basically just asterisms and loosely defined areas around them. 100 years ago the constellations were formalized by rectilinear boundaries (that is, the constellations are not the asterisms anymore). And Quadran...

I was wondering about something: if either or both of the two "wings" of the main mirror failed to unfold into position, could the telescope still do some imaging and provide useful data? After all, there would still be at least 12 of the 18 total hexagonal mirror segments in place. I wou...

An emailer points out The sun most certainly does not rise at its southernmost point (N hemisphere) on the solstice. That happens around January 5, +/-. (today!) This is correct insofar as the Sun's southernmost point occurs during the day of the December solstice -- which does not necessarily coin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCDwpkcLuQ <<NASA will provide live coverage and host a media briefing Saturday, Jan. 8, for the conclusion of the James Webb Space Telescope’s major spacecraft deployments. Beginning no earlier than 9 a.m. EST, NASA will air live coverage of the final hours of Webb...

<<Stories about the unusual behavior of birds during eclipses have been told for centuries, but bird reactions were recorded and studied systematically by citizen scientists participating in an eBird project during the total solar eclipse that crossed the USA in 2017 August. Although some unusual b...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Tide_overview.svg I may have lost my mind, but I have no clue about how the ebb and flow work. Well, I understand that Moon attracts water, which is more elastic than the earth. Hump A on the top of Earth is formed. But how does hump B on the oppo...

"about 2 percent illuminated by sunlight" sounds somewhat strange to me - it is 100% illuminated by sunlight!! I presume you mean that about 2% of the sunlight that hits it is reflected... :) I’ve always taken that sort of statement as meaning that 2% of the disk of Venus is reflecting su...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EnlaXnFcGs <<Webb's secondary mirror is fully deployed. Webb's secondary mirror had to deploy in microgravity, and in extremely cold temperatures, and it ultimately had to work the first time without error. It also had to deploy, position, and lock itself into place...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Edmonton_-_Art_Gallery_of_Alberta_%2815015846212%29.jpg <<The Art Gallery of Albertais a public art gallery located in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The building was designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout. Construction of this build...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTMDpRoTLF0 <<In stellar evolution, an FU Orionis star (also FU Orionis object, or FUor) is a pre–main-sequence star which displays an extreme change in magnitude and spectral type. One example is the star V1057 Cyg, which became 6 magnitudes brighter and went from s...

I can't imagine any human will EVER visit Saturn, or even Jupiter for that matter - radiation and particles are killers, and what would humans do there anyway? Great place to go for a sightseeing tour... although the trip out and back is rough! National Lampoon's Europaean Vacation: <<Dr. Unger (Em...

Sunshield Successfully Deploys on NASA’s Next Flagship Telescope <<On Jan. 4, 2022, engineers successfully completed the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield, seen here during its final deployment test on Earth in December 2020 at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. T...

Sundown wrote: ↑Mon Jan 03, 2022 6:02 pm
I was just wondering why, if there is no air in space to move around or dissipate it (like a contrail),
is the tail not straight for all those miles? Is it because of Solar Wind?

The ion tail is affected by the solar wind, magnetic fields & coronal mass ejections.