Starship Asterisk*

What if the universe were a giant ('gi-normous' the kids might say!), nevertheless expanding, crystal? If the 'interior' surfaces of the crystal were able to endlessly reflect 'interior' microwave radiation, would it appear to an observer inside the crystal as if, no matter where in the crystal the...

BMAONE23 wrote:http://creationwiki.org/Moon_recession

Rob

Surely that's not a "consequence of this coincidence", is it? I would expect the density of any moon would be proportional to its tidal force (a truism if I ever heard one), and that the tidal forces of any moon plus any star would be additive when they are in more or less alignment and s...

An interesting consequence of this coincidence is that the tidal forces of the moon & sun are in the same ratio as their mean densities: 3.35 = mean lunar density = lunar tidal force 1.41 = mean solar density = solar tidal force [3.35 + 1.41] = full/new moon tidal force [3.35 - 1.41] = half moo...

It's just a coincidence. Our moon happens to be just the right size to almost perfectly cover the sun. No significance can be attached to this coincidence.

Rob

Up here in the frozen north, people would only misread it as Cosmic Toque (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuque.)

Rob

Explanation: The July 22nd total solar eclipse was the longest of the 21st century. From the point of maximum eclipse along the Moon's shadow track across the Pacific Ocean, the Moon completely blocked the Sun for a total of 6 minutes and 39 seconds. But from the deck of this cruise ship the durati...

Or consult an anthropologist. Even that would be of questionable value, since anthropologists have no experience with several thousand year old cultures, and only the most limited data on modern primitive societies. A) My remark was intended as light humour, and not to be taken too seriously. B) Ne...

Chris Peterson wrote:... We'll probably just have to agree to disagree.

Or consult an anthropologist. But then, if an anthropologist were lurking here, they wouldn't want to contaminate their research by actually communicating with their subjects.

(Hmmmm, maybe that's why loco has gone silent.)

Rob

I do have QuickTime, but the NASA videos show only an initial few frames and then stall as I can see the download gauge continue to move rightward until the entire video is downloaded. Even after the download completes, however, I never see anything more than those initial few frames. :( I just tri...

I recall reading years ago that you need roughly 4.5 megapixels in a digital camera to duplicate the number of grains of silver in the emulsion of a reasonably good film. Obviously this is just a rough approximation, but it indicates that your 3.1 MP camera is below even that threshold -- kind of eq...

Loco wrote: .. what kind of dimwit do you think I am!

You don't want to open up that topic for discussion, do you?

Rob

Loco wrote:... Zero gravity. ...

Zero gravity on the moon? You'd best dig out your old copy of Dick and Jane Go To the Moon and review the pertinent details. A test will be given.

Rob

harry wrote:Read between the lines.

The trouble with reading between the lines is that you have to make up all the words.

Rob

I'm for swift deletion of off-topic or other sinful posts, but not outright banning except for the most egregious of activities

Rob

Qev wrote:Sounds more like Asimov's "The Last Question" to me.

You're right. I must plead sagging memory (among other things) since I read the story about 50 years ago, around the same time I read Clarke's.

Rob

garyclaytonpalmer wrote:Ever hear the story about how man defined God? ...

You're thinking of "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. He told it better.

Rob

A similar effect can be seen in any port city. Large ships pass through the harbour daily, and seen from a bridge or from down at the shore, they're big but not startlingly so. But walk back into the city a half-dozen blocks, along a street with a clear view to the harbour, and wait for one of those...

You seem to be insisting that these hypothetical intelligent beings wouldn't act intelligently by offering us some clues -- as we did on the Voyager plaques.

Rob

Let me Google up the answer for you. ... ...

Okay, have a look at Wikipedia, searching for Voyager, scrolling down to the Current Status section and you will find what you seek.

Rob

Is there a remnant of this huge cloud? Where is the evidence of the near Nova that made this cloud collapse? As you said in another thread. interstellar space is completely void of anything. Hi Mark, In this thread http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16783 , in response to one of my qu...

BMAONE23 wrote:that thing casting a shadow in the upper right crater almost resembles a piece of mining equipment.

It's one of these, I'm pretty sure.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2002 ... 4617qRtlWh

Rob

Hi Chris,

As it happens, star system/planetary formation is my main interest at the moment. Is there a site anywhere on the net which might be a good place to learn more about it? I have to start at the first year level; it's been a while since I last cracked the books.

Rob

True or not, it's an attempt to distract from discussion of the message, the scientific debate about climate change. What has tobacco got to do with climate change? Let's stick to the discussion of the scientific evidence rather than trying to divert to some irrelevant thing. I have a tendency to s...

... Instead, please permit me to direct your attention to a very good reference on the subject released today: http://www.nipccreport.org/ The full pdf file may be downloaded from http://www.heartland.org/publications/NIPCC%20report/PDFs/NIPCC%20Final.pdf Before taking seriously anything published ...