Starship Asterisk*

The caption to the APOD on 11.18.08 mentions the hexagonal shaped cloud band around the north pole of Saturn. It appears to me that the strange aurora also there overlays this same cloud band. It may be that whatever forces are creating the hexagonal cloud band are also effecting the strange aurora ...

The Luna Moth Nebula, don't you think?

This is a breathtaking picture. As I studied it, I was reminded of the appearance of a cephalopod, the nautilus. On Wikipedia, there is a detailed description of a nautilus and also various pictures of the same. What is especially interesting is the spiral-shaped nature of the nautilus' shell and ho...

Thanks, Chris, for the explanation. I thought light could only be generated by stars as they undergo nuclear fusion.

This nebula, like others I have seen here, has light emanating from the fringes of the dust-gas cloud. I have assumed that that light comes from stars that are hidden by the nebula but their light shines at the edges of the cloud. My question is, can light be emitted from a celestial body that has n...

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.

Is the bright object I see at dusk (approximately 8:30 PM CDT) in the south-southwest sky the International Space Station? I am located at latitude 35.66 north and longitude -89.2 west. The ISS is my best guess especially since the last shuttle mission added the additional large array of solar panels.

To borrow a phrase from country music artist Lee Greenwood, " I am proud to be an American" when I see these pictures.

Sweet.

Wow! Today's APOD, NGC 2903, looks like one of the big lollipops you can buy at a fair.

What is the possibility that the universe itself is arranged like a spiral galaxy?

Two questions about the star that is bi-sected in the center right edge of today's APOD: 1.) what is it's name and 2.) is the faint curving line I see just to the right of the photo's center evidence of a bow shock between LDN 1622 and the unnamed star?

A follow-up question on SN 2006GY. Since the estimated distance to SN 2006GY is 240 million light years, does that mean this event actually occurred 240 million years ago and we are just now seeing it, or that the supernova actually occurred more recently and our modern telescope's ability to"r...

In the caption, the estimated distance to SN 2006GY is 240 million light years. Is this approaching the limit in the universe that our various telescopes and observatories can reasonably study celestial objects?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070510.html

What really gave me the impression that M81 is shaped like a funnel or a saucer is the great photo I found when I clicked on the words in the caption "this remarkably deep image" and went to the Gallery of Astro Photography. The purplish dust lanes between nine o'clock and twelve o'clock f...

As I study the image of M81 used as the APOD on April 27th, it appears different from the way I had always imagined spiral galaxies to be. I have always thought of them as a disc existing in a particular galactic plane. This picture (due to its depth?) has the appearance of a funnel where if you cou...

Where is the bar in M95? As strictly a layman in astronomy, there is much I have to learn, but usually I can locate the features in the APOD using the that day's caption. Does the bar run from eleven o'clock to five o'clock inside the ring around the galaxy center? Many thanks.