Starship Asterisk*

That youtuber sure produces a lot of videos! I watch him occasionally. In this video he talks about a 1% preference for galaxies spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on direction. But as for the entire universe spinning, I'm not sure what that means. If we use the 2-D universe on...

There is no evidence that magnetic fields like this play any role in the formation of stars. But they may form paths that over long periods influence the movement of dust and gas, and therefore affect where stars form and a degree of large scale structure. At the scale of stellar systems, gravity e...

And by any chance, does magnetism play any sort of global role in the Universe? Particularly if the Universe actually happens to be spinning ? Ann That youtuber sure produces a lot of videos! I watch him occasionally. In this video he talks about a 1% preference for galaxies spinning either clockwi...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_200617.jpg Magnetic Streamlines of the Milky Way Explanation: What role do magnetic fields play in interstellar physics? Analyses of observations by ESA's Planck satellite of emission by small magnetically-aligned dust grains reveal previously unknown magnetic ...

Can't resist comparing the magnetic streamlines of the Milky Way with the post-impressionist swirly painting style of Van Gogh. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/757px-Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg Yup. When...

So, I'm wondering why in some scenes the Moon "exits" the Sun on the lower left, and on some the lower right. I also was disappointed that the compilation had the "large cloudy sunmoonrise" broken up through the video, instead of being a contiguous clip. I agree. I'm confused. T...

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:24 am DistortedSunrise_Chasiotis_1080.jpg

You don't get to see a crescent sun very often!

Very cool. Looks like some Elven war ship arriving from Middle Earth!

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_200614.jpg Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend national boundaries and occu...

Isn't one of the much touted features of the Crew Dragon that it can (and did) dock autonomously with the ISS. No crew input required. Yes, the Crew Dragon is capable of full autonomous docking, but in this case it was apparently a joint effort. A CBS News link says this: [From https://www.cbsnews....

Johnnydeep posts a picture And forgets to point out the Bear Nebula! :ssmile: bearNebula.JPG Cute! I admit I suck at seeing hidden objects in astronomical images. Even more so seeing images in constellations with suggestive names. I am reminded of the "Bart's Comet" episode of The Simpson...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_200612.jpg NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet Explanation: NGC 2359 is a helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages popularly called Thor's Helmet. Heroically sized even for a Norse god , Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is more ...

Is the Wolf-Rayet visible in this photo? I'm no expert, but I believe this is it, since it seems to be approximately in the center of the "bubble": wolf-rayette at center of nebula NGC 2359 Thors Helmet.JPG The particular Wolf-Rayet start here is WR 7 (HD 56925) [see https://en.wikipedia....

I think it looks like a dog with :D very big ears! Don't you mean Thor's Donkey? (I tried to include a .png outlining the donkey head, but I guess I need to use an image service such as Pinterest (which I don't have/use) You can use the Attachments tab at the bottom to inline marked-up images from ...

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:30 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:28 pm Off (this) topic, but is there no APOD today? I get this "The requested URL /apod/ap200610.html was not found on this server."

[EDIT: Leon1949Green beat me to it!]

#ShutDownSTEM

Ah. Poor name though - too permanent sounding. Would be much better as "#PauseSTEM".

Off (this) topic, but is there no APOD today? I get this "The requested URL /apod/ap200610.html was not found on this server."

[EDIT: Leon1949Green beat me to it!]

I came just to say it, but johnnydeep beat me to it: M78 (which I call the “Pac-Man Monster Nebula”) and NGC 2071 get no respect in the annotations. Thanks for this addition. I didn't even realize that NGC 2071 was also shown in the image I include, and is the smaller nebula to the right of the lar...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_200609.jpg Orion over Argentine Mountains Explanation: Do you recognize the constellation of Orion? It may be harder than usual in today's featured image because the camera has zoomed in on the center, and the exposure is long enough to enhance nebulas beyond w...

Gottit! Black drop effect! https://atoptics.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/the-black-drop-effect-is-not-an-atmospheric-phenomenon/ Cool. Aka "the shadow bridge effect". Despite reading that article I still don't quite understand what's happening optically. Is it just the overlapping fuzziness o...

A ring around Mercury? Really? How is that possible? There is no thick atmosphere on this planet. I'm baffled too. How can Mercury display a ring of fire during its transit of the Sun? Ann Yeah, doesn't make much sense to me either. But I did find this pic that sort of shows an orange ring around m...

If radius is proportional to time back, it looks like at first there was no rotation (outer third), then equal emission in all directions (middle third), and now leisurely rotation (inner third). Is this a correct interpretation? If so, what caused the change in rotation, perhaps asymmetric emissio...

Earth is a product of accretion of particles over a long time. What makes the center of the Earth a fireball? pass the ice cold one Doesn't it have to do with radioactive decay in the large iron/nickel core of the Earth? Ann Yes, plus two other factors. From https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...

¿Can anyone explain what the spokes are like Japanese parasol rods seen in some images? I don't seek "spokes" in this image of the cat's eye nebula, rather, there seem to be net-like filaments of denser gas. Not sure what causes that - perhaps magnetic fields? Or maybe it's just random de...

I just noticed something odd about the APOD page for this (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130530.html). If you click on the Discuss link there, it takes you to http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/discuss_apod.php?date=130530, which ends up being a broken link and falls back to a page that proclaims &...

I just noticed something odd about the APOD page for this (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130530.html). If you click on the Discuss link there, it takes you to http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/discuss_apod.php?date=130530, which ends up being a broken link and falls back to a page that proclaims &q...

Fascinatingly, Comet PanSTARRS seems to pay regular visits to the Earth, and grow an anti-tail around May 23 perhaps every seventh year. Which "Comet PanSTARRS"? The Pan-STARRS survey has discovered more than 200 comets so far. In any case, the subject of today's APOD, properly designated...