Starship Asterisk*

DavidLeodis wrote:Am I right in thinking that the Horsehead Nebula is the brownish object near the top right corner. :?: If so I doubt I would have realised it is in the image without the explanation mentioning it.

floyd wrote:As a long time fan of APOD I've often wondered what these beautiful nebula would look like if we were inside one. What would our solar system look like if we could observe it from thousands of light years away? Would we appear as a tiny speck or would be be a part of a beautiful scene a distant astronomer might see and wonder at?

geckzilla wrote:

floyd wrote:As a long time fan of APOD I've often wondered what these beautiful nebula would look like if we were inside one. What would our solar system look like if we could observe it from thousands of light years away? Would we appear as a tiny speck or would be be a part of a beautiful scene a distant astronomer might see and wonder at?

The Sun is probably pretty unremarkable to a distant observer, compared to, say, the Pleiades, which is a pretty striking star cluster. Apparently we are inside something called the Local Fluff but it's really diffuse.

• MARLENE: ..I saw your act.
  
  JERRY SEINFELD: My act? What does that have to do with anything?
  
  MARLENE: Well, to be honest, it just didn't make it for me. It's just so much Fluff.
  
  JERRY SEINFELD: I can't believe this. So what are you saying? You didn't like my act, so that's it?
  
  MARLENE: I can't be with someone if I don't respect what they do.
  
  JERRY SEINFELD: You're a cashier!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Fluff wrote:
<<The Local Interstellar Cloud, casually called the Local Fluff, is the interstellar cloud (roughly 30 light years across) through which the Solar System is currently moving. The Solar System entered the Local Interstellar Cloud at some time between 44,000 and 150,000 years ago and is expected to remain within it for another 10,000 to 20,000 years. The cloud has a temperature of about 6000 °C, about the same temperature as the surface of the Sun. It is very thin, with 0.1 atoms per cubic centimeter; approximately one-fifth the density of the galactic interstellar medium (0.5 atoms/cc) and twice that of the gas in the Local Bubble (0.05 atoms/cc), the Local Bubble being an area of low-density in the interstellar medium, with the Local Cloud a small, more dense area. In comparison, Earth's atmosphere at STP has 2.7 × 10¹⁹ molecules per cubic centimeter.

The cloud is flowing outwards from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association, a stellar association that is a star-forming region. The cloud formed where the Local Bubble and the Loop I Bubble met. The Sun, with a few other local stars, is embedded in the Local Fluff. The Local Interstellar Cloud's potential effects on Earth are prevented by the solar wind and the Sun's magnetic field.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 wrote:
<<As of May 2008, Voyager 1 is at 12.45° declination and 17.125 hours right ascension, placing it in the constellation Ophiuchus as observed from the Earth. NASA continues its daily tracking of Voyager 1 with its Deep Space Network. This network measures both the elevation and azimuth angles of the incoming radio waves from Voyager 1, and it also measures the distance from the Earth to Voyager 1 by measuring the round-trip time delay of radio signals to and from Voyager 1. Then, halving that time delay, and multiplying by the well-known speed of light gives the one-way distance.

As Voyager 1 heads for interstellar space, its instruments continue to study the solar system; Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists are using the plasma wave experiments aboard Voyager 1 and 2 to look for the heliopause. In May 2005 a NASA press release said that consensus was that Voyager 1 was now in the heliosheath. Scientists anticipate the craft will reach the heliopause in 2015.

As of 21 December 2009 (2009 -12-21), Voyager 1 was at a distance of 112.060 AU from the Sun, which makes it the most distant human-made object from Earth. At this distance, it is farther away from the Sun than any known natural solar system object, including Eris and 90377 Sedna, but excluding long-period comets.>>

DonAVP wrote:. . . the famous Horsehead Nebula, visible above on the far right.

The Horsehead sure looks more wispy in inferred. I am going to see if I can overlay this image with one taken in visible light.

floyd wrote:As a long time fan of APOD I've often wondered what these beautiful nebula would look like if we were inside one. What would our solar system look like if we could observe it from thousands of light years away? Would we appear as a tiny speck or would be be a part of a beautiful scene a distant astronomer might see and wonder at?

DonAVP wrote:. . . the famous Horsehead Nebula, visible above on the far right.

The Horsehead sure looks more wispy in inferred [sic].
I am going to see if I can overlay this image with one taken in visible light.

• "Inferred" Horsehead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito wrote:
<<This graffito was discovered in 1857 when a building called the domus Gelotiana was unearthed on the Palatine Hill. The emperor Caligula had acquired the house for the imperial palace, which after Caligula died became used as a Paedagogium or boarding-school for the imperial page boys. Later the street on which the house sat was walled off to give support to extensions to the buildings above, and it thus remained sealed for centuries.>>

• Sonnet I: Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  _________ King Lear > Act III, scene IV
  
  EDGAR: Whom the foul
  . fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and
  . through ford and whirlipool e'er bog and quagmire;