Starship Asterisk*

cc, What do you mean? You really have to be clearer than that! What have large hailstones on Earth to do with this? And for an ignorant one, 'FOCLMAO'? But apart from that, I came to ask where are the "towering walls" to Odysseus that the APOD mentions? This crater is very large but is now...

Is that a new picture of the 'entrance' to Victoria Crater? There's nothing new on the Mars Rovers' home page: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ since the last day of August. John John Try here for up to date daily images http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/ click on the opportunity or sp...

Is that a new picture of the 'entrance' to Victoria Crater?
There's nothing new on the Mars Rovers' home page: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ since the last day of August.

John

aichip, You 'poopoo' the suggestion that water/peroxide metabolism may exist, because a compound that would vigourously react with a peroxide is ubiquitous on Mars. Is that a valid argument? Earthly organisms use potassium and sodium compounds, when those elements react violently with water. Our bon...

FI,
Answer the (implied) question!
Not descend into insult.

That transparent dome is as good evidence of some spooky experiment as the pictures from Iapetus and Enceladus are of aliens. How do you answer that point?

John

craterchains, FieryIce, You've missed an obvious conspiracy here. 'Trick' illumination of the telescope dome - Phooey! It's a cloaking device being tested. We demand more pictures and schematics of the building! Who owns it again? New Mexico Tech? Just next door to Area 66! Or whatever it's called. ...

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? Oh, yes we do! Even on Earth. See this map, of just North America, and just the BIG craters that are still observable after weathering and geology: http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabas...

Wow, markk, what an excellent video (they are usually so crude), that shows both phenomena = vapour cone and water surface disturbance. I think we are arguing at cross purposes, for which I will take the blame. Of course a boom is heard after the plane passes; however fast the aircraft, the sound st...

Strange how people cannot believe what they see. craterchains says that the cloud, "forms as they are about to break the sound barrier, and slips behind as they actually go through the sound barrier." markk agrees and posts a link to a compilation that shows exactly the opposite. A cone of...

Floyd, So, there is CO2 snow, over dark sand. That I can believe. As the summer approaches, and the planet warms, the CO2 below the surface is so warm that it sublimes, forms pockets of gas (?) and then EXPLODES like multiple geysers, all over the dune surface? This brings dark sand to the surface, ...

If we can accept for a moment that they ARE dunes, or something like that, and concentrate on the dots? The "Sandy jets exploding" link takes us to a last years' APOD, that suggests that the jets raising layers of "interspersed dark sand would explain the color of the spots". Tha...

Oh, come on! They are "artists". They "interpret reality". A true image would show a tiny speck of light and a dim sphere. Where's the fun in that? You'll be saying next that the Mona Lisa didn't really have a smile, that Monet was just a half blind old man and that Guernica woul...

Dysnomia = 'bad name' in dog Latin?

Jimmy,
Thanks for that link - the picture is so much better on there that the question I was going to ask - is that an edge-on galaxy or a gravity lensed image of something - is redundant.
On the NOAO page it is clearly - an edge-on galaxy!

John

Thank you, BMAONE! The pics in that link are much better than those on Google Earth and clearly explain the blackness of the satellite image. Now, if a terrestrial black sand area can produce a similarly black on black image, why postulate a hole, or even, for goodness sake, oil? There is lots and l...

Have a look at this object on Google Earth - the Waw an Namus in Libya at 24 degrees 58' 50.59" N 17Deg 44' 42.63" E I think this link should show that properly. That feature is about 10 miles across. It's actually an extinct volcano filled with dark material...but not as black as what we...

Is it a hole?

Have a look at this object on Google Earth - the Waw an Namus in Libya at 24 degrees 58' 50.59" N 17Deg 44' 42.63" E

Then look at the photos of it from ground level - it looks nothing like that, just an oasis in a depression.

Why does it look like that from space?

John

It's not a fake - see the HiRise version. Look at it in fullscreen to see what detail of the edges is possible. http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/2007/details/cut/PSP_3647_1745_cut_b.jpg And see the full photo and discussion, http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu//images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_003647_174...

Thank you Chris for such a comprehensive answer.

No 'fudging' implied! Just to relieve my ignorance.

John

Chris, I have no doubt that a photograph could be taken by exposing the plate continuously for the length of time it took for the asteroid to travel that far. Just as a fixed camera would show 'star trails' as the objects moved, a camera attached to a telescope with a motorised mount would show fixe...

Nonsense! Or more politely, that may not be the explanation. A continuous exposure that showed such discontinuity could have that explanation, but this is not a continuous exposure. It is described as a 'composite', many individual exposures, each elongated into a dash by the duration of that exposu...

Mt.Chimborazo's summit is further from the centre of the Earth than Mt. Everest's, but by the same measure, so are the beaches of Ecuador! This is due to the 'oblateness' of the Earth, and was calculated by Isaac Asimov, in a 1966 article to which I would be grateful for a reference. Another point, ...

If we are going to recommend anything in the field of making information accessible by visual means, the work of Prof. Edward Tuft is pre-eminent.

See: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

John

Dave, You have your opinion, but you're splitting hairs when you say 'it's not an an image'. This certainly was not a photograph, but the header says either or. An 'image' can be a representation of something by other means, and what is a movie but a series of still photographs? Movement can add muc...

All, As the APOD says, on its header, "Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured" This was an image that was very different, fascinating and about understanding our Universe, so I say full marks to APOD for putting it up! Not that I understood it! John