Starship Asterisk*

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....

I a mont dismissing the possibilty of a water/peroxide chemistry for an organism at all. I am rejecting the idea that any significant amount of peroxide exists in the soil based on the clear evidence of the chemistry and the soil analysis. Then you are posting in the wrong discussion. The topic is ...

But, actually, how strong is the brightness? I'd like to know that if there is observed data. I made a few measurements off the images I took during the eclipse, and it appears that the surface brightness of the Moon was about 1000 times reduced at mid-eclipse. Your rendering is very attractive, bu...

The bottom line is that with these incompatible chemicals in the soil, it is physically impossible for any significant amount of hydrogen peroxide to exist on Mars. Doesn't somebody at NASA know a little basic chemistry? By perpetuating this peroxide myth, they really, really look like fools. The t...

One would think the lines would show up dark against the sky light if there were power lines there. In my mind the streaks could be bits of a broken up comet fragment traveling together, and briefly illuminating as they burn up in the atmosphere. I think the 36 minute spread from the first to the l...

I wondered if the chart linked from the APOD page might be for a solar eclipse. Since the size of the shadow cast by earth's umbra is greater than the size of the moon then it would cover the entire surface area of the moon. How would it be possible for it to obscure varying degrees of lunar visibi...

Why are there so many craters on the moon and how often do they hit? We don't see as many on other planets do we? About 4 billion years ago, something happened that flung a lot of material into the inner Solar System. This was the Late Heavy Bombardment, which isn't well understood, but may be rela...

Actually gregg07 if you check Iridium flare fits better. Nope, there were no flares, nor even more than one Iridium satellite in the field at the times the images were made. Also, there's nothing to suggest that the light on the hill is a spotlight aimed at the sky. And it's no less likely to have ...

I thought space was darn cold. :lol: Space in the Solar System is pretty bloody hot. In Earth orbit, say where you find the ISS, the temperature is around 1000K. between the planets, it can reach nearly 1 million K. Of course, the particle density is so low that you transfer almost no energy convec...

Well i dont think earth might survive if the sun will become a white drawf soon.. It is possible for the Earth as a planet to survive the process of our Sun becoming a white dwarf. A red giant is tenuous and cool enough that a planet might continue to orbit inside it. However, the Sun will also hav...

But what happens,if our sun dies n become a neutron star..? Will all the gravity be lost? Will all the planets,collapsed n become unarranged? Will we collide with other planets..? Will our planet,be dark forever..? Our sun is not massive enough to become a neutron star. It will eventually become a ...

My latest re run with Guide 8 comes in agreement with MaG's research:- IR35 (#24966) 03.23:24 - 03.23:38 (EEST) IR97 (#24967) 03.32:40 - 03.32:48 " IR5 (#24795) 03.41:54 - 03.42:06 " IR6 (#24794) 03.50:52 - 03.51:25 " IR7 (#24793) 03.59:54 - 04.00:28 " I question these results. ...

IRIDIUM 8 (#24792) 00:40:38h UT (Lowest streak. Slight flare) IRIDIUM 51 (#25262) 00:49:55h UT (Flare) IRIDIUM 7 (#24793) 00:56:05h UT (Small duration flare) IRIDIUM 6 (#24794) 01:06:56h UT (Faint trail) IRIDIUM 5 (#24795) 01:08:21h UT (Top most very faint trail) Unfortunately, these times are not ...

If you look closely you will notice there are more than 5 streaks in the image... they begin near the base of the photo and track toward the upper-left corner... at the point where the three brightest streaks are located they shift direction and begin tracking toward the upper-right corner of the i...

Which is why I posted my lens/filter scratch question. Sometimes the simplest of solutions is probably the most likely. :) As we are all interested in the search for knowledge, I don't think it would be too embarrassing for the author to say, "oopsy, I just took a look, and there are scratches...

1) Check location. I searched: Turkey, than Beynam.. it gives me: Beynam, Turkey WGS84: Lon: +32d53m45.0s Lat: +39d41m21.0s Alt: 1324m 2) Check date and time: Date 12. 8. 2007, time - the best is maybe UTC, so than you must enter 0:15 for beginning and 1 hour span (to 1:15 UTC).. I think you've mad...