Starship Asterisk*

It should be possible to replicate these lighting conditions here on Earth in a darkened room with 2 bright lights, 1 with a red filter. I don't have enuf time to do it myself, but perhaps somebody else is curious enuf to give it a go and report back on their findings.

You DO know that the illustration got the shadows reversed, right? The ground under the shadow pointing away from the red star is illuminated only by the white one, so it shouldn't be reddish.

Oh, dear, the dates embedded in the photo are not ISO 8601 compliant, unlike everything else on the APOD site, which is scrupulous about it.

Welcome back, APOD!

I missed you during the government shutdown.

I'm sorry your bosses didn't think you were essential.

I love you anyway.

It would be interesting to post, right next to this one, a shot of North Korea at the same time of day from the same altitude.

I understand that this is just an artist's impression... but the picture is flawed in just about every way it is possible for such a picture to be flawed. The sun seems very big at two pluto orbits distance, Dysnomia is practically grazing the surface of Eris it is so close, the shadow on Dysnomia ...