Starship Asterisk*

We are nowhere in this simulation. This simulation does not show the actual specific particular map of our universe, but it does show how a dark matter distribution can evolve naturally to reach a state similar, in a statistical sense, to our actual universe. Thanks for the clarification. The expla...

Where are we in this simulation? It looks like there's a huge clump of dark matter in the middle, with various other accretions throughout. Can we see the Milky Way? The local group? The Virgo Supercluster? It would be nice to have a little arrow stating "you are here."

I looked at that and immediately thought http://pmpaspeakingofprecision.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the_scream.jpg The Scream. Yet another great APOD. Me too. Maybe this multiple galaxy system is screaming because the components can't decide whether to collide, merge, or pass like ships in the nigh...

Thanks Chris for your quick and helpful response. The picture makes more sense now!

Please forgive my ignorance. I'm trying to match this awesome picture up with what I see in the eyepiece of my small telescope. Are the four bright stars on the right of this image the trapezium? I am not a photographer, but I appreciate reading about the subtleties and work involved in making such ...

I voted for Comet Garradd and M 27. The comet is very timely -- I've been observing it for the past month or so with a small telescope, and it's now bright enough to see in binoculars from a reasonably dark location. This picture with M 71 is quite lovely, and the text is informative. And the fact t...

Thank you Neufer for posting the clip of Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Clearly *that's* where the apod editors are slipping, in the selection of wry tangential links! ;-) Seriously, I enjoy seeing the occasional picture of an earthly atmospheric phenomenon. Unless you'...

As a young boy during the 1960's, I grew up watching grainy black-and-white images of the Gemini and Apollo missions on TV, and listening to Walter Cronkite explaining what was going on. During my unhappy teenage years in the 1970's I read a lot of science fiction. Ursula LeGuin's novels especially ...

These pictures are super competitors for votes, based on the close tally right now. I think my votes here recognize how fast these days we see more of and farther into our solar system: the Vesta picture was published a few days after Dawn reached it, and we look at the newly discovered moon of Plu...

That's really cute - the space shuttle will be disappearing - its over Bermuda - so is it disappearing into the Bermuda triangle? Is Atlantis disappearing into the ocean... again? Brilliant! I hadn't thought of that. ... . I am sooo sad the space program is winding down. I wonder what the Russians ...

The big dipper mosaic is beautiful at first glance, and then it rewards close examination by revealing several spiral galaxies and a planetary nebula. As an *astronomy* picture, this one gets my number-one vote.