Starship Asterisk*

Ahh...good point about phosphorous. I had thought the flares were magnesium. Also, this quote really seems to go against my theory: They tend to remain less than 1 wingspan apart, and drift with the wind. I had figured a zoom lens and the vortices drifting apart were responsible for the wide appeara...

The comment about pollution I could've left out, but the basic concept is that water condensation requires something to condense onto...a condensation nuclei. It occurs on dust, but particulate exhaust probably actually assists that. Your comment about pollution and the whiteness of the cloud (indic...

I suppose possibly because aeronautics is a major portion of NASA's focus, APOD often has aeronautical or meteorological related pictures. The C-17 dropping flares can be considered in either group because you see aerodynamic effect of wingtip vortices affecting the shape of the cloud and probably c...

Maybe if we crashed Ceres into Mars, Mars would become habitable as Ceres would add the necessary volume to have a near Earth gravity and an abundant water supply. My understanding is that part of the reason that Mars does not have a significant amount of water (and a rather thin atmosphere) is bec...

Minor correction...at least as far as I understand the press release I read...this doesn't rule out modified gravity, but the results of this observation can not be explained by modified gravity, or anything else currently on the table, making it extremely strong support that dark matter rather than...

Because the barycenter (common orbit point) of the Pluto-Charon group is outside of either body's radius, neither one is considered to genuinely dominate the other gravitationally, so it's considered a binary system. I've got mixed feelings about the definition, but my objections are mostly knee-jer...

*Sigh* I don't even know why I bother responding. To say the Big Bang Theory is flat out wrong is at least as premature as saying it is absolutely correct. There are certainly problems with the Big Bang Theory because it doesn't explain everything in the universe perfectly. In addition to the globul...

I'm not sure I understand since the whole structure appears somewhat comet-like. I suppose perhaps you are referring to a smaller white streak aligned about 30 degrees from horizontal just below the middle of the frame? My first thought was an x-ray jet from a black hole, but in retrospect I think a...

Oh don't worry Harry, I understand your thoughts on the BBT. Your points are well taken, but like many others, I remain unconvinced that any of the alternative theories are necessarily better, and in light of that it is worthwhile to discuss theories in the context of the BBT. Qev...interesting note...

While I admit I am not an astrophysicist, I maintain based on my reading that black holes formed as an effect of density fluctuations shortly after the big bang are possible. I'm unclear on exactly when, but I would guess before the condensation of individual nuclei. These are referred to as primord...

Don't forget that some cosmologists theorize that "micro" black holes could have been formed in the big bang (actually, at the very end of the inflationary period, if I remember right). These could be basically anywhere and not encounter and interact with sufficient matter to be detectable...

That's been one of my more common grievances since I moved to the city. I almost never get to see the sky like that anymore. I remember my first year away at school wandering around for about two hours in November trying to find a good spot to view the meteor shower from (Leonids?). The darkest spot...

No bets here of course, but it would be interesting to speculate on the chemistry that might work at those temperatures. Seeing that picture on yesterday's APOD made me think think about just that. Just think of the look on the faces of the scientists at ESA if Hguyens had hit the ground and sent b...

It's all subjective. I liked the picture. Sure it doesn't reveal any deep truth, but it's every bit as relevant, and certainly more aesthetically pleasing than pictures of planets lining up. Besides, such things are pretty rare. I'm frankly surprised that perhaps one only marginally relevant picture...