Starship Asterisk*

Is the solar system's ecliptic plane at an angle to the Milky Way's ecliptic plane?

Scenes like this are making me seriously consider moving somewhere that I can have a 360 degree horizon instead of my little opening in the trees here ....

When I read through the various links in today's APOD description and try to get an understanding of those many vast sources of such immense energy scattered through out the universe, it is easier to understand the forces that might have been behind the "Big Bang" when all those energy sou...

1. What factors made point "N" declared a north pole? How do you declare "north" on something like this? Is it on a line of rotation similar to earth's rotation? 2. Why would Phobos break up into pieces that would spiral down and crash onto Mars instead of staying together as one...

This is a fun picture to study to pick out elements of circular movement, linear movement and non-movement. Great stuff!

I love this APOD discussionboard because of the additional material that is discussed about the daily APOD. It certainly is much more than a mere blog - it is an educational experience that gives one more than the brief paragraph under the APOD picture can. The Digg link that used to be included led...

(( laughing )) thanks for the answers!! I think I understand. Sound need a medium to travel through in order to be transmitted. Out in the vacumn of space there isn't enough "medium" that will transmit the sound in a manner that we are likely to hear anything. The only medium dense enough ...

I have to apologize in advance since I suspect you folks think my questions inane but I do have another one: with all the fusion, burning, eruptions, whatever in the sun, does it make any kind of roaring sound that can be heard at any distance from it?

Also, that photo is awesome!!!!

The sense of what could be the possible ripple effect on our little world if those two black holes collide and explode, black hole style, is fearsome to speculate.

Is it just an effect of the mirrows that the technicians' suits are so loose and bulky? If not, are they a one-size-fits-all? Are they recycled and cleaned up for reuse or are they disposed after one use?

Some 35 years ago, on a visit to friends in Northern New York State, I was fortunate enough to see the aurora on 2 nights running. Standing outside, all bundled up against the very cold night temps, it was a wonderful awe-expiring experience!

Magnificent photo! It's hard for me to find the words to describe the awe created by pictures like this. My mind does a ying-yang trying to translate a "3 moon wide" picture into the actual distances it represents .....

What a wonderful learning environment!!! Kudos to both Grokow and RJN!! I have a question about the effect of a rain drop's surface tension (independent of smaller presenting surface area and higher velocity). Could it possibly repel or vector off in another direction an impacting micrometerite whic...

I noticed the blue sky and the brightly-lit mountain top also - it seems a little out of place with the rest of the picture - is this a composite photograph? Was a panorama-type camera, turned on it side, used for it?

I wish that I could see this place in person - it is beautiful!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this series of posts and following the many links - there is so much to learn in this world and I do love these ideas. Unfortunately, I don't think the interesting searches that you all have proposed will find anything concrete except for the possibility of ...

....... NGC=New General Catalog, IC=Index Catalog (an NGC supplement), M=Messier Catalog, Sh2=Sharpless Catalog (emission nebulas), B=Barnard Catalog (dark nebulas). Single numbers, letter pairs, and Greek letters are references to individual stars that are part of Auriga (Bayer or Flamsteed design...

Can't trust that shifty red-shift ....

If there is any land that is able to be seen through all those clouds, it must be white also - maybe Antartica ????

P.S. I miss the Digg link with its collection of crazy comments.

The APOD submissions travel from outer space to near-Earth space and now to inner-inner space - I loved this collection of links. I have been working my way through a DVD survey course on quantum mechanics that I ordered from an online website. Maybe I'm getting dotty in my old age by attempting thi...

I vote for pelletized oil - if it were, I'd bet that Obama would change his dictum to NASA about the manned space program .... The suggestion above about "Marsquakes" is fascinating - how much mass does an object need with what kind of internal structures and stresses to create the conditi...

Wow!! Talk about someone taking an image with a nice intrinsic artistic value of, say, "1" and then being able to dig out technical details valued at, say, "5 or 6 or 7".....

Nice going there, Sherlock!!!

I pulled you over because you were speeding in a school zone - may I see your driver's license and registration, please?

It's a real shame that the human condition of relatively short lifespans doesn't allow the great scientific minds of ages past to participate in this adventure - they would be loving it and probably great contributors also ....

Is it possible that this type of shock wave occurs all the time but just isn't noticable in clear air? Is there any kind of instrument like an ultra-fast infrared camera or sensitve air-wave density tracker (with apologies to all - I'm inventing here) that could always be aimed at every rocket launc...

Thanks folks!! Every time, I pull up a new page, I discover layers of relationships and complexities that seem so impossible to even exist. It's amazing to me how the human mind has struggled to define and understand things that seem so beyond us - much like a voting ballot might be to an ant ....